Historical strandings of cetaceans on the Portuguese coast: anecdotes, people and naturalists andreia sousa 1 and cristina brito 1,2 1 Escola de Mar, Edifı ´cio ICAT, Campus de FCUL, Campo Grande, 1749-016 Lisboa, Portugal, 2 CHAM (Centre for Overseas History), Faculdade de Cie ˆncias Sociais e Humanas, Universidade Nova de Lisboa and Universidade dos Ac ¸ores, 1069 – 061 Lisbon, Portugal Large whale strandings have always been intriguing to people through the centuries. The size and strangeness of these events always attracted popular attention and were, later on, a source for food, oil and other products. Our goal was to document species occurrence over time along the mainland coast of Portugal through the use of historical records as they can provide useful information on cetaceans’ species. A total of 38 historical records from the 16th to the 20th Centuries were collected from several Portuguese institutes and personal archives. Results show an increasing awareness of the scientific importance of strandings reflected throughout the years in number and in the detail of the strandings. The most common stranded species recorded was Physeter macrocephalus followed by Balaenoptera physalus. Even though historical stranding records are sparse for mainland Portugal, the information gathered indicates a high diversity of cetaceans. We also addressed the evol- ution of the historical records in aspects such as in number of records, description detail, pictures’ content and scientific accu- racy. We were able to establish relationships linking strandings, local fishing communities, the general public, and particularly the contribution of early 20th Century zoologists. Results indicate that reports made by local fishing communities and the role of naturalists and science journals of the 19th and early 20th Centuries was of considerable relevance to the present knowledge about cetaceans, giving an important contribution to modern day cetacean studies. Keywords: history of science, large whales, natural history, strandings, occurrence, Portugal Submitted 27 October 2010; accepted 12 January 2011 INTRODUCTION A stranding occurs when animals die or become weakened at sea and are brought passively to shore by wind and wave action (Perrin & Geraci, 2009) where they are often found by people. Marine mammals, both cetaceans and seals, are commonly stranded onto beaches and other coastal areas. Throughout history stranded whales have fascinated people and questions about the reasons why they strand have always arisen (Perrin & Geraci, 2009). Since ancient history, coastal human populations have been familiar with the presence of cetaceans, and probably their first approach to a cetacean was through strandings. Myths and legends have arisen as a result of strandings’ events (Constantine, 2009) but scientific information only started to be collected from early modern times. A traditional source of information for the study of ceta- cean distribution has been the compilation of strandings’ lists, especially in regions where historical records have been collected on a regular basis (Kinze, 1995). This is particularly true in the North Atlantic where stranding records have been documented continuously since the 16th Century (e.g. Kinze, 1995; Pierce et al., 2007; Barthelmess & Svanberg, 2009), reflecting general public interest in large whales and other cetaceans ashore. Also, whereas the remains from a stranded whale did not leave traces in history, both the material and the spiritual culture it inspired have (Barthelmess, 2003). In mainland Portugal, direct contact of local fishing com- munities with cetaceans have been known since the 12th Century through whaling and whale use (Brito, 2008, 2009) and this interest continues over the centuries with several zoologists dedicated to this subject in recent times. Nevertheless, compilations of observations and records are still sparse. Only at the beginning of the 1980s did dedicated studies and surveys occur (e.g. Teixeira, 1979; Sequeira, 1988) and systematic methodologies have been followed only since the 1990s for coastal populations of cetaceans. Also, characterization of cetacean communities along the Iberian shore is still poorly described in terms of species abun- dance and distribution and it is limited to a few sources (e.g. Brito et al., 2009). Considering this, and given the lack of research in historical records for the Portuguese coast, we developed this retrospective research to historically character- ize stranding events and to make available long term data for future research. Our objective was to document cetacean species presence over time along the mainland coast of Portugal through the use of historical written records of strandings. We will also address the evolution of the historical records in different Corresponding author: C. Brito Email: cristina.brito@escolademar.pt 1 Marine Biodiversity Records, page 1 of 8. # Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom, 2011 doi:10.1017/S1755267211000959; Vol. 4; e102; 2011 Published online