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Live Sighting of Blainville’s Beaked Whale Mesoplodon densirostris (de Blainville, 1817) in the Indian Seawaters


Affiliations
1 Fishery Survey of India, Mormugao Zonal Base, Opposite Microwave Station, Mormugao 403 803, India
2 Fishery Survey of India, Headquarters, New Fishing Harbour, Sasson Dock, Mumbai 400 005, India

Two individuals belonging to the species Mesoplodon densirostris (de Blainville, 1817) were sighted in the Indian waters during a marine mammal survey conducted on-board the vessel MFV Yellowfin associated with the Mormugao Zonal Base of the Fishery Survey of India. This survey was part of the project titled ‘Marine mammal stock assessment in India’. Among the sighted individuals, one was a female based on its morphological characters while the sex of the other was unknown. To the best of our knowledge, there are no previous sightings of this rare beaked whale from the Indian Exclusive Economic Zone.

Keywords

Beaked whale, live sighting, marine mammal survey.
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  • Live Sighting of Blainville’s Beaked Whale Mesoplodon densirostris (de Blainville, 1817) in the Indian Seawaters

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Authors

P. R. Arshad
Fishery Survey of India, Mormugao Zonal Base, Opposite Microwave Station, Mormugao 403 803, India
M. Nashad
Fishery Survey of India, Mormugao Zonal Base, Opposite Microwave Station, Mormugao 403 803, India
S. Ramachandran
Fishery Survey of India, Mormugao Zonal Base, Opposite Microwave Station, Mormugao 403 803, India
H. D. Pradeep
Fishery Survey of India, Mormugao Zonal Base, Opposite Microwave Station, Mormugao 403 803, India
Venkatesh Saroj
Fishery Survey of India, Mormugao Zonal Base, Opposite Microwave Station, Mormugao 403 803, India
R. Jeyabaskaran
Fishery Survey of India, Headquarters, New Fishing Harbour, Sasson Dock, Mumbai 400 005, India

Abstract


Two individuals belonging to the species Mesoplodon densirostris (de Blainville, 1817) were sighted in the Indian waters during a marine mammal survey conducted on-board the vessel MFV Yellowfin associated with the Mormugao Zonal Base of the Fishery Survey of India. This survey was part of the project titled ‘Marine mammal stock assessment in India’. Among the sighted individuals, one was a female based on its morphological characters while the sex of the other was unknown. To the best of our knowledge, there are no previous sightings of this rare beaked whale from the Indian Exclusive Economic Zone.

Keywords


Beaked whale, live sighting, marine mammal survey.



DOI: https://doi.org/10.18520/cs%2Fv127%2Fi7%2F860-862