Dolphins’ cry for safety

KUCHING: The habitats of four dolphin species which frequent several coastal areas in Sarawak could be vulnerable to human activities, a year-long study has found.

The Sarawak Dolphin Project, jointly conducted by Sarawak Shell Bhd, Sarawak Forestry Corporation (SFC) and Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (Unimas), recorded sightings of the Irrawaddy dolphin, finless porpoise, bottlenose dolphin and humpback dolphin in coastal waters off Kuching, Bintulu and Miri.

It found that the four species preferred nearshore habitats in waters of less than 10m deep, and that these areas close to shore were important for feeding and breeding.

Gentle creature: An Irrawaddy dolphin seen of the Santubong coast in Kuching.

“This makes them vulnerable to human activities near coastal areas.

“The Irrawaddy dolphin especially has leanings towards habitats near the shoreline, making it more susceptible to threats such as being accidentally entangled in fishing nets,” SFC managing director and chief executive Datuk Len Talif Salleh said at the official closing of the project here on Monday.

As such, he said SFC would take appropriate action based on the study’s findings to protect the dolphin habitats and feeding grounds.

He also said SFC supported the project’s recommendation that a statewide dolphin stranding network be established to enable early detection and reporting of stranded or entangled dolphins.

The project team responded to five reports of dead dolphins which had been found stranded or entangled. Four were found in Miri while one was found entangled in a net in Kuching. The team examined the carcasses and took skin and stomach samples for genetic and diet analysis.

Second Minister of Planning and Resource Management Datuk Awang Tengah Ali Hasan, who closed the project, said more research needed to be carried out to improve knowledge on dolphins in Sarawak.

“Although this dolphin project has come to an end, the three parties will continue to carry out projects on specific areas of research.

This is how we do it:SFC staff practising data on an inflatable dolphin in one of the workshops.

“This will help provide us with a broad database on dolphins in Sarawak,” he said.

Future areas of research include the migratory and social behaviour of dolphins, their dietary habits and tagging of individual dolphins to monitor their movements.

Fourteen boat surveys covering 3,644km of sea were conducted during the project, yielding 76 sightings of dolphins.

The project team responded to five reports of dead dolphins which had been found stranded or entangled.

Four were found in Miri while one was found entangled in a net in Kuching.

The team examined the carcasses and took skin and stomach samples for genetic and diet analysis.

The project team also carried out community awareness activities, training programmes and dolphin stranding workshops.

In the dolphin stranding workshops, SFC staff from Kuching, Bintulu and Miri were taught how to assist dolphins that had stranded alive as well as to collect data from dead dolphins.

They practised collecting data on an inflatable dolphin dubbed Flipper and learnt to collect skin samples using a papaya.

source: The Star Online
date: July 18, 2009
by: Sharon Ling