Population estimate and distribution pattern of Indian Ocean humpback dolphin in northwestern Persian Gulf

Marine & Wetlands Division, Department Of the Environment

The habitat specialist Indian Ocean humpback dolphin (Sousa plumbea) is
the second most common cetacean in the Persian Gulf. Mousa Bay in the
northwestern Persian Gulf is an important, but highly industrialised habitat
for this species. We developed a systematic and comprehensive distance
sampling survey carried out from 2014 to 2016 to estimate abundance and
population density of humpback dolphin in this bay. To evaluate
distribution pattern of the species, eight environmental variables were
measured and employed in a zero-inflated generalised additive model
(ZINB GAM). With an estimated abundance of 92 animals (64–131, 95% CI)
and density of 0.123 animal / km2 (0.086–0.176, 95% CI), our results
revealed Mousa Bay as one of the largest population of humpback dolphin
in northern latitudes of its global range.

- Studying the abundance, distribution and zoning of dolphin habitats in the
coastal waters of Khuzestan
- Collecting and producing information about the environmental,
ecological, and human characteristics and the most important factors of
threats and pressure on the humpback dolphin.
- Obtaining demographic information of the species such as group size and
proportion of newborns
- Obtaining information on the abundance and probability of seeing the
species in the study area for use in ecotourism purposes

Observation time was not provided.
Observations before and after the project implementation period (2014-2016)
are also presented.
Registered as part of the International Marine Mammal Area under the title
"NORTHERN GULF AND CONFLUENCE OF THE TIGRIS, EUPHRATES, AND KURAN
IMMA"

Overview

This section explains attributes included in the original dataset. OBIS-SEAMAP restricts the attributes available to the public to date/time, lat/lon and species names/counts only. Should you need other attributes described here, you are encouraged to contact the data provider.

Attributes described below represent those in the original dataset provided by the provider.
Only minimum required attributes are visible and downloadable online. Other attributes may be obtained upon provider's permission.

Attributes in dataset

Attribute (table column)	Description
oid	Unique ID number (generated by OBIS-SEAMAP)
record_number	Record number
scientific_name	Scientific name
sp_tsn	Taxonomic Serial Number added by OBIS-SEAMAP
obs_date	Date of the sighting
obs_time	Time of the sighting (not provided)
latitude	Latitude in decimal degrees
longitude	Longitude in decimal degrees
group_size	Group size
geom	Geometry field added by OBIS-SEAMAP