Sightings and Strandings

Carcass was burried by locals and later retrieved by the Mangrove Cell for the skeleton. Photos shared by Mr. Mohan Upadhey

Shared by Rhea.

Old record shared by Johnson Varkey.

Reported by Abhishek Jamalabad on India Marine Mammals group. (Whatsapp)Dolphin stranded on a rcoky shore in Pirwad, Uran.

Much beach, north of Mangalore

Reported on India Marine Mammals group (Whatsapp) by Ms. Sameeha Pathan. Location to be confirmed

Reported on India Marine Mammal group (Whatsapp) by Dipani Sutaria. Found at Guddekoppa beach near Surathkal.

Shirgaon beach; Reported by Mr. Bhushan Bhoir (tel: +9182371 50523) on Marine Respondents' Mumbai group (Whatsapp)

Gangoli beach

Stranding was reported on the Marine Respondents group (Whatsapp) by Mr. Dhaval Kansara (contact: +919096614400).

Sinquerim Beach. Source: TerraConscious and Drishti Life guards

Kihim beach, came in with the tide, total length - about a meter

Umargam, Gujarat Source- self

Two individuals seen breaching a few hundred metres from the shore at Bombay Harbor, Cuffe Parade. Photograph attached.

Washed ashore at Miramar Beach. Appeared to be a juvenile/sub-adult

Washed ashore at Keri Beach. Necropsy conducted

Washed ashore at Jogeshwar.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b1yCzGt9G1Q

Washed ashore at Polem beach. Right flipper appears to have a deep cut, possibly from fishing line.

No measurements were taken. From the photographs, the size of the body and fin shape, could be a sub-adult individual.

Carcass washed ashore at Kumta beach.

Washed ashore at Calangute beach. No other data submitted.

Carcass found on Cavellosim beach, Goa.

Washed ashore at Rajbagh beach.

Carcass washed ashore at Anjuna beach, Goa.

Mr Bhavik along with Balaji was at Dwarka beach and sighted a pod of Humpback dolphins.There were 3-4 animals with one smaller looking individual.

Carcass washed ashore at Majorda beach, Goa. No other details available, the carcass was buried as per instructions from local FD.

A singing male humpback whale was sighted within 100m of Netrani island, by divers from West Coast Adventures. A free diver managed to get 43 seconds of video where the whale could be heard vocalising. Some observers suggested there were 2-3 whales.

A pod of dolphins sighted under the Bandra Worli sea link

About 700m from shore..4-5 animals, with one small one.swimming slightly apart in a circular fashion as if circling fish. then a fish chase happened and the dolphin caught the fish.

At Bandar beach, a IOH dolphin was brought to shore after it got entangled in a gill net.

Finless porpoise washed ashore

Group size: 80-120
The survey consisted of 1669km of on-effort search and 52 groups of cetaceans sighted

Carcass found on rocks behind Breach Candy hospital in Mumbai. The source identified it as dolphin but can't be ascertained from the photos. Carcass was picked up by the BMC.

Sighting 1: A pod of about 6-8 whales seen during a pelagic birding trip off Goa's coast, periodically surfacing for air. Possibly more in number. Were with them for 15-20minutes.
Personal Communication with PCCF Ajay Saxena who was on the vessel" The whales were seen in waters 25-30km from Vasco harbor. Sea was calm, animals were relaxed, cruising and allowed the vessel to approach within 100am. Seem to be slow traveling on the surface with shallow water dives. Moving north-northwest.
Sighting 2: one individual.

Washed ashore at Trica beach. Found by fishers and informed students at University.

seen offshore Calicut, in 25-30m of water. lat long:
10 57 581
75 44 020

A live striped dolphin got beached at Miramar beach. TerraConcsious along with Forest Dept, Drishti Lifeguard and researchers reflected the dolphin and at first took it out to 4-5m of water. It had no signs of external injury, other than some bruises near the flipper and fluke probably from being washed ashore. The dolphin beached itself again on the same day. After that the Forest Dept took the dolphin further out to sea and released it. It did not beach again after that.

Carcass washed ashore and was not attended to for a while. Total length: 146cm

Dugong stranded on Laxmanpur beach, Neil Island. Skin was sloughed off. Necropsy was performed in presence of vets.Tissue and blubber samples were collected and are being analysed at WII lab.
location: 11.84829 N, 93.01276 E

Humpback dolphin and finless porpoise carcass washed ashore. Probably, necropsy was conducted by the SPCA, but no details were shared.
The attached pictures have two carcasses, the larger one is the finless porpoise carcass.

Animal washed ashore not far from Juhu police Chowki. Morphological data not recorded. Animal buried on site by the locals.
Stranding occurred on 10th August 2018, was reported on the group via the Mumbai network, on 13th August 2018.

Finless porpoise stranded in Chinchani beach. No data was collected. Carcass buried at the site of stranding.

Carcass washed ashore on Versova beach. Buried y forest department. Details not recorded.

A pod of 7-8 dolphins was seen during the dawn.

Washed ashore at Utorda, Goa - Source: TerraConscious and Drishti Life guards

A stranded Indian ocean humpback dolphin in decomposing condition - Code
washed ashore and observed at inter tidal zone at Malgund beach, Ratnagiri district Maharashtra on 18 th May, 2018. The detailed examination of the carcass reveal marking of net entanglement on the body,left flipper was missing fluke was still entangled in a rope.The specimen was adult measuring 264.16 cm.

Stranding on Kihim beach, skin and teeth samples taken-adult based on size and teeth condition.

No specific details were given. No data collected.

2 individuals at a distance of approximately 500m from each other were observed logging in calm offshore waters

Washed ashore in Morjim. Source is Terraconscious and Drishti lifeguards. Data submitted to Forest Dept.

Carcass Washed ashore at Mandrel beach in Goa. Source: Abhishek Jamalabad, Terraconscious and Drishti life guards

April 26th 2018; Rushikulya beach; reported by Rabi sahay. Juvenile spinner dolphin male. No other data.

newspaper article attached, Picture shows mark of net entanglement infront of the flippers.

Found at Polem point, Goa. Adult Female. Size available with FD
Source: Dhrishti lifeguards and Terraconscious.

Seen well offshore in over 300 meters of water. 2 individuals seen - Please see the previous record for the other individual. The two individuals were 300-400m apart.

No measurements were taken

Dead whale carcass seen in the waters off Chidyatapu. Could have washed ashore in Rutland.

Exact location unknown, but on the way to Little Andaman, and closer to Little than to south Andaman. A pod of pilot whales.

Pregnant female

A total of seven spinner dolphins washed ashore in Cuddalore three in Uyalli kuppam, three in Sadras kuppam and Cuddalore chinna kuppam; one in Naina kuppam between 9th and 12th of March 2018. Based on the assessment by Supraja Dharini of TREE foundation, these were probably all related to fishing gear related mortality. Details available with Supraja

Pictures available. No sample collected

Two unidentified dolphins were seen moving very close to the sea shore at about 7 am. One of them was very small in size compared to other. Hence, it could be a calf.

Surat..a single humpback dolphin was seen surface active very close to shore; social displays to tourists in the water.

Decomposed carcass washed ashore late evening. Total length: 9ft. 3 inches.

About 8 Pilot whales were observed in a mixed species pod with Fraser's dolphins in South Andamans during ferry based surveys.

Code 4. Decomposed carcass, necropsy could not be conducted. The carcass was buried before morphometrics could be recorded.

Carcass was severely burnt, discoloured, bloated and ruptured around the anus. It was about 1.5 meters in length.

Saw around 8-10 Dolphins coming arial

A pod of about 70 Risso's dolphins were observed during ferry based surveys in South Andaman waters.

Carcass was severely decomposed and bloated. Its skin was sunburnt and discoloured. Fluke was completely decomposed. Jaw bone was visible. Approximately 6 feet in size.

Four to five individuals swimming towards Twins Island.

FD buried the carcass. No details collected.

The animal was stranded on Saturday 21st October 2017 but was reported on 23rd October 2017. The individual was stranded in two parts. Posterior portion washed ashore near the Afghan church shore and the anterior head region was found near the Colaba pumping station. The tail region was inaccessible approx. length estimate was 5 m. The head region was measured at 7.8 m. The total ventral pleat count was 43-44. Bryde's whales match this pleat count.
The carcass was in advanced stages of decomposition and the jaw bones and certain vertebrae were exposed.

Individual was a young female 27ft8m stranded live. It was first seen circling in the shallows after midnight on the 21st. Beached by 6am. When locals found out it was alive then decided to take it back to sea. We found out a bit late as rescue operations had begun even though we tried to convince locals that it would not survive.It beached again on 23rd at a beach a km west of the first location.

The carcass was found washed ashore early morning by joggers/walkers along Rajodi beach. Morphometry was not recorded. The animal was later buried by local authorities.

Indian Ocean Hump back Dolphin carcass was found in the mangroves of Bandra

Carcass washed ashore at Juhu beach.

Unidentified Marine Mammal Carcass Found Dead at Aksa Beach

This whale was found on Polem beach. Two parts of the whale were found about 50m apart, measuring about 7m and 6.5m.
It had beached about 2 weeks prior to the time we found out about it. The date of the record is therefore adjusted accordingly.
Based on the flipper, it is certainly not a Humpback whale, but could be any of the other whales. The carcass condition does not allow us to ID.

Carcass found ashore in a decomposed state, along with oil slick and garbage. Morphometric data could not be collected

Bryde's whale stranded 10.5m length near to fish market area , Veraval, Gir-somnath. Pictures attached. Three ridges seen on upper rostrum.

Almost fully decomposed except the head. Forest department buried it with out doing post mortem.

Female individual live stranded on Rajodi beach at 1330 on 13th July 2017. Locals tried to push it back into the water unsuccessfully. The individual died within two hours of the rescue attempt and was buried in the same location.
Approximate length of the animal was about 228 cm. Bleeding was observed from the genital opening/anus.

Located well offshore along with skip-jack tuna. Approx 30 to 40 in the pod.Actively hunting.

Over 100 dolphin in the area. All spread out over vast area. Seemed to be resting in the area and not hunting or feeding. Were attracted by the boat and in a playful mood. Located well offshore in 200+ meters of water. May have been a mix of species. Seen in May 2015

Seen in May 2015

Group of 4 to 5 seen, maybe more. Moving South at about 8 knots. they were shy and did not stop or change course. Difficult to predict where they would surface. Seen just outside Port Blair port. Possible Omura's whale as size was around 40 ft. Seen on 05.05.2015

Decomposed. Found its long tusk

Decaying, internal organs came out from mouth

badly bloated decomposing carcass with a rope tied to the fluke.

1. Total body length = 250cm
2. Snout to centre of anal opening = 169 cm
3. Snout to centre of genital opening = 132 cm
4. Snout to centre of umbilicus = 106 cm
5. Head plus neck length = 20 cm
6. Head length = not measured
7. Neck length = 15 cm
8. Penis length = 15 cm
9. Anal opening length = 4 cm
10. Distance of teat from the body centre line = 24 cm
11. Snout length = 17 cm
12. Snout width = 20 cm
13. Chin length = 12 cm
14. Chin width = 17 cm
15. Distance separating centres of tusks at tips --- not measured
16. Tusks length ----not found
17. Snout nostrils = 13 cm
18. Snout to eyes. = 20 cm
19. Snout to external auditory meatus = 35 cm
20. Eye to nostril = 17 cm
21. Eye to external auditory meatus = 12.5 cm
22. Eye to gape ---- not measured
23. Gape length --- not measured
24. Eye height = 1 cm
25. Eye length = 2 cm
26. Nostril height = 3 cm
27. Nostril width = 2 cm
28. Total nostril width = 6

Humpback whale heard by Dive Goa's Ajey Patil and Barracuda Dive Centre's Khush Khabraja and Venkatesh Charloo. Ajey got a voice recording on a video recorder while Khush saw the fluke. the whale was heard for two days near Suzie's wreck, off Grande island, Goa

Two striped dolphins by caught. Pictures attached. One of two is male. Approx 1m in total length

pod of 4 at the 50m depth contour straight out from Panjim 4 days ago

On 14th January i have sighted a large pod of Indo-pacific humpback dolphins at Aare ware coast which is located 15 km from Ratnagiri city. The pod consisted of around 20 individuals separated into four groups. The animals were swimming near to shore and were found to tolerate presence of fishing trawlers. The animals were probably hunting as tail waving and other tactics like jumping was observed. The animals showed off nearly for an hour.

Two orca sightings reported:
pod of 4 at the 50m depth contour straight out from Panjim 4 days ago.
Single orca, 2 months ago, again around 50m depth contour, near Mangalore.

Reported by crew member of a fishing vessel trained by Ajey at DiveGoa

Stranded ashore at Tambeldegh

Total length ~ 35 feet

Stranded ashore

On 17th September 2016 a female Indian Ocean Hump Back dolphin was Washed on the Rocks of Palm Beach, Bombay

Calf

It has been said that this whale washed ashore live and was dragged back into the water as a rescue operation the next day. It was young, and very emaciated as you can see in the pictures.

Whale was he ashore dead. 35ft in length.

On 6th August 2016 on a pelagic birdwatching trip on a fishing trawler a huge pod of dolphins were sighted off the Chennai coast. Videos and photographs confirmed a super-pod of Stenella atttenuata also known as Pan-tropical Spotted Dolphin. Three to five dolphins were breaching at a time every 5-10 minutes, and the estimate was about 10-15 pods of 100 dolphins/pod. As the boat stayed with the dolphins for about 90 minutes the size of the full group could be in hundreds if not a thousand. The dolphins were moving constantly showing acrobatic and social behaviour. They seemed to be moving while locally milling. There were calves and adults, singles, pairs and big groups. The sighting was between 12.40 p.m. 13.17592329, 80.51683536 until about 02.15 p.m 13.12593895, 80.509396. The temperature was around 36 C at about 12 noon, wind speed 18 km/h in West/South-West direction at 12 noon, the depths of the sea in the range of 90-95 meters.

Male baleen whale washed ashore on July 12th 2016. No other data was collected. No sample collected.

Hare island, Tuticorin. Whale washed ashore live on Hare island. It was reflected by locals. But washed back dead the next day. Data collected by Fisheries college, Tuticorin. Samples with Veterinary college, Tuticorin.

Washed ashore, calf

Unidentified baleen whale. Either Blue or Bryde's.

On 21st of April 2016 a carcass of a very young Indian Ocean hump back dolphin was beached on Prixi Beach. Details were taken and then it was burred there by Forest officials

1. Total body length = 140 cm
2. Snout to centre of anal opening = 90 cm
3. Snout to centre of genital opening = 84 cm
4. Snout to centre of umbilicus = 83 cm
5. Head plus neck length = 22 cm
6. Head length = 17 cm
7. Neck length = 8 cm
8. Genital opening length= 2 cm
9. Anal opening length = 2 cm
10. Distance of teat from the body centre line = 13 cm
11. snout length = 6.5 cm
12. snout width = 14.2 cm
13. Chin length = 7.6 cm
14. Chin width = 8.7 cm
15. Distance separating centres of tusks at tips --- not measured
16. Tusks length ----not found
17. Snout nostrils ---- 6.4 cm
18. Snout to eyes.= 13.4 cm
19. Snout to external auditory meatus = 22.7 cm
20. Eye to nostril = 11.5 cm
21 Eye to external auditory meatus = 9.3 cm
22. Eye to gape ---- not measured
23. Gape length--- not measured
24. Eye height = 0.9 cm
25. Eye lenght = 0.8 cm
26. Nostril height = 1.4cm
27. Nostril width = 1.2 cm
28. Total nostril width = 3.3 cm
29. Circumference measurement taken along the auditory meatus = 66 cm?
30. Anterior

A pod of 6 dolphins sighted around 1:30 pm. Dolphins were around 0.5 km off-shore and were actively swimming

No teeth count available. Need skull to confirm ID.

We discovered a pod of around 5 dolphins they obliged us with frequent sights above water maneuvering into the deeper jungle channel of Indian Sundarbans.

On 29th February 2016 a dolphin carcass was found beached ashore of Palm Beach Manori. Teeth count suggests this is a Tursiops.

TL-33.8 ft; female- Rushikulya beach

A pair incidentally trapped in an active purse seine at night, subsequently released by the crew

Two individuals sighted off Mochemad coast, depth approx 12.9m. Animals were seen traveling offshore.

Mother-calf pair spotted at Devbag, depth 17.1m, approximately 4.5km from shore.

I went to Devbaug beach near Tarkarli for 7 days. I used to watch group of 10- 12 dolphins every day on the beach. This pic is clicked at Devbaug.

A total of 100 - 150 animals were seen observers' estimates vary. At least 4 subgroups of roughly 25 animals each were present. Distinctive fin deformities and markings were noticed in some individuals.

Carcass washed ashore on Bhogwe beach.

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total length 16feet

A blue whale calf total length: 12.8m stranded live at Revdanda beach in shallow water. Animal was extremely emaciated. Samples were collected.