Our second quarterly survey of 2021 has successfully come to a close after our field team, led by experts from Al Mayya Sanctuary and Five Oceans Environmental Services, took to the sky and sea again to conduct the aerial and boat surveys off the Fujairah coast in search of marine mammals. We recorded a total of 10 sightings over a period of four days in late March, including four cetacean species: striped dolphins (Stenella coeruleoalba), common bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus), Risso’s dolphins (Grampus griseus) and IndoPacific common dolphins (Delphinus delphis tropicalis).
Striped dolphins are very rarely recorded anywhere in the region and to sight them again in March, having also seen them in February, is highly significant. It is probable that they are almost exclusively an offshore species within the region, hence the scarcity of recorded sightings.
Also among the sightings in March was a pod of approximately 200 common bottlenose dolphins that appeared to be feeding and was accompanied by a smaller pod of about 40 Risso’s dolphins. Most sightings occurred in very deep water far from shore, but one was much closer to the coast, relatively near the Port of Fujairah, and consisted of a large pod of around 100 very energetic Indo-Pacific common dolphins that were leaping high out of the water and tail slapping at the surface.
This pod appeared to be of mixed ages, including at least one mother-calf pair. Other notable wildlife observations included sightings of 17 turtles and a couple of large sharks, which could not be conclusively identified due to poor weather conditions, but were tentatively identified as whale sharks; a species that has been recorded by the team in previous surveys in 2018.
Large swathes of bight green algal blooms were very obvious on the sea surface when viewed from the helicopter, whilst from the boat patches of the sea looked like pea soup. It was likely caused by the diatom species Noctiluca scintillans, which is a bioluminescing phytoplankton. This is a good reminder of how productive the waters are off the coast of Fujairah, attracting an abundance of marine life. As the days went on, weather conditions deteriorated with increasing wind, haze and rough sea conditions, making it more challenging to sight any cetaceans.
Daily, the aerial team departed in the helicopter from Fujairah International Airport and the boat team from the Port of Fujairah to follow our survey transects in tandem, communicating any sightings to each other. An advantage of aerial surveys is the much wider field of view, due to the altitude, making it easier to find any cetaceans and allowing for more accurate estimation of group size (numbers of individuals) and composition (adults, juveniles, calves) at the sea surface.
Once the aerial team confirmed an observation, it is communicated to the boat team, which would then head to hopefully find the cetaceans and obtain close-up photos for ID purposes and to collect other valuable information for our scientific database. Another advantage of the boat-based surveys is, of course, when dolphins decide to ride the bow waves of the survey vessel giving the crew a memorable experience!
The Five Oceans Environmental Services team is now back in the Muscat office undertaking the desk-based tasks of data analysis and cataloguing the photographs. Until the next survey in the third quarter of this year, make sure to like and follow our social media accounts on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook and keep an eye open for regular news and updates.
By continuing this unique project within the region, our knowledge on the distribution of cetacean species in Fujairah’s waters continues to increase, and plays an important role for informing future environmental legislation implementation and conservation efforts within the Emirate.
The flexibility and manoeuvrability of helicopters, in conjunction with boat surveys, make them a powerful scientific tool to investigate cetaceans. We wish to thank the project’s patron, H.H. Sheikh Mohammed bin Hamad bin Mohammed Al Sharqi, Crown Prince of Fujairah, the Government of Fujairah, Fujairah International Airport as well as the Port of Fujairah plus various collaborators for their continued support and assistance of the project, and we very much look forward to continuing our work together.
Article published on the Fujairah Observer Magazine May 2021.
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