IMBÉ, RIO GRANDE DO SUL ESTATE, BRAZIL. – NOVEMBER 07:
 Group of students and technicians takes care of the calf of Fransciscana or La Plata River Dolfin (Pontoporia blainvillei) in Imbé.
The calf was found on the beach and taken by locals for Center for Marine  Wildlife Rehabilitation 

( in Portuguese Centro de Reabilitação de Animais Silvestres e Marinhos – CERAM ) biologist contact: Maurício Tavares – [email protected]

The main problem facing the species is incidental mortality in gillnet fisheries (there is no indication of direct exploitation of Franciscanas), which has been observed since at least the early 1940s (Van Erp 1969). In the 1960s, the bycatch in Uruguay alone was as high as 1,500–2,000 animals (Brownell and Ness 1969, Pilleri 1971). Current estimates total at least 2,900 animals per year in all four management stocks, combined (e.g., Ott et al. 2002, Secchi et al. 2003b)
Franciscanas inhabit shallow coastal waters (and they sporadically enter the estuary of the La Plata River) of tropical and temperate regions of the western South Atlantic Ocean (Crespo 2002). They are found only along the east coast of South America (Brazil, Uruguay, and Argentina), from the northern Golfo San Matias, central Argentina (ca. 42°10’S), to Espirito Santo, southeastern Brazil (18°25’S) (Siciliano 1994; Crespo et al. 1998).
Photo: Rodrigo Baleia