Red Sea Cetacean Review - Sightings

Original provider: Tethys Research Institute Dataset credits: Marina Costa, Amina Cesario, Maddalena Fumagalli & Giuseppe Notarbartolo di Sciara, Tethys Research Institute Chris Smeenk Eritrea Project - Yohannes Mebrahtu IMMRAC Peter Rudolph Red Sea Dolphin Project - HEPCA Abstract: Based on a review of the literature, complemented by original observations at sea made by the authors during the past 34 years, the cetacean fauna in the Red Sea appears to be composed by a total of 16 species: three Mysticetes (Bryde’s whale, Balaenoptera edeni; Omura’s whale, B. omurai; and humpback whale, Megaptera novaeangliae) and 13 Odontocetes (dwarf sperm whale, Kogia sima; killer whale, Orcinus orca; false killer whale, Pseudorca crassidens; short-finned pilot whale, Globicephala macrorhynchus; Risso’s dolphin, Grampus griseus; Indian Ocean humpback dolphin, Sousa plumbea; rough-toothed dolphin, Steno bredanensis; Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphin, Tursiops aduncus; common bottlenose dolphin, T. truncatus; pantropical spotted dolphin, Stenella attenuata; spinner dolphin, S. longirostris; striped dolphin, S. coeruleoalba; Indo-Pacific common dolphin, Delphinus delphis tropicalis). This review presents the very first documented and confirmed sightings of B. omurai, K. sima and S. bredanensis in the Red Sea. Of all the above species, however, only nine (Bryde’s whale, false killer whale, Risso’s dolphin, Indian Ocean humpback dolphin, Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphin, common bottlenose dolphin, pantropical spotted dolphin, spinner dolphin, and Indo-Pacific common dolphin) appeared to occur regularly in the Red Sea, the remaining seven only occurring sporadically as vagrants from the Indian Ocean. Even regular species appeared not to be uniformly distributed throughout the Red Sea, e.g., with Indo-Pacific common dolphins mostly limited to the southern portion of the region, and the Gulf of Suez only hosting the two bottlenose dolphin species and Indian Ocean humpback dolphins. No convincing evidence was found of the Red Sea occurrence of two whale species mentioned in the literature: the common minke whale, Balaenoptera acutorostrata, and the sperm whale, Physeter macrocephalus. The absence from the region of deep diving species (e.g., Ziphiidae and the sperm whale) can be explained by the geomorphology of the Straits of Bab al Mandab, with its extended shallow sill likely to discourage incursions by such species into the Red Sea. The coordinated effort and the different expertise of the authors has contributed to amend previous mistakes and inaccuracies, verify and validate specimen identification, highlight features of relevance for species taxonomy and, most importantly, draw a fundamental baseline to inform conservation of cetaceans in the Red Sea. Purpose: To release updated information about cetacean species in the Red Sea and review existing information from published and grey literature. Supplemental information: Sighting records were collected from the data owners: Chris Smeenk Eritrea Project - Yohannes Mebrahtu Israel Marine Mammal Research & Assistance Center - IMMRAC Mia Elasar, Daphna Feingold, Oz Goffman, Nir Hadar, Dan Kerem, Aviad Scheinin Peter Rudolph Red Sea Dolphin Project - HEPCA This dataset incorporated the previously published dataset "IMMRAC marine mammal sightings from the Red Sea (http://seamap.env.duke.edu/dataset/1145)". Temporal resolution varies per record. Time values are not available. "tprecision" column is added to indicate the resolution.

原始提供方：特提斯研究所（Tethys Research Institute）
数据集贡献者：Marina Costa、Amina Cesario、Maddalena Fumagalli与Giuseppe Notarbartolo di Sciara（特提斯研究所），Chris Smeenk厄立特里亚项目——Yohannes Mebrahtu，以色列海洋哺乳动物研究与救助中心（IMMRAC），Peter Rudolph红海海豚项目——HEPCA

摘要：本研究基于文献综述，并结合作者团队过去34年间的原位海上观测结果，显示红海鲸类区系共计包含16种：3种须鲸类（Mysticetes）——布氏鲸（Bryde’s whale, Balaenoptera edeni）、大村鲸（B. omurai）、座头鲸（Megaptera novaeangliae）；以及13种齿鲸类（Odontocetes）——小抹香鲸（Kogia sima）、虎鲸（Orcinus orca）、伪虎鲸（Pseudorca crassidens）、短鳍领航鲸（Globicephala macrorhynchus）、里氏海豚（Grampus griseus）、印度洋驼海豚（Sousa plumbea）、糙齿海豚（Steno bredanensis）、印太瓶鼻海豚（Tursiops aduncus）、普通瓶鼻海豚（T. truncatus）、热带斑海豚（Stenella attenuata）、长吻飞旋海豚（S. longirostris）、条纹海豚（S. coeruleoalba）、印太真海豚（Delphinus delphis tropicalis）。
本次综述首次证实了红海区域存在大村鲸、小抹香鲸与糙齿海豚的经记录并确认的目击事件。然而上述物种中，仅有9种在红海有稳定分布：布氏鲸、伪虎鲸、里氏海豚、印度洋驼海豚、印太瓶鼻海豚、普通瓶鼻海豚、热带斑海豚、长吻飞旋海豚与印太真海豚；其余7种仅为偶发的印度洋洄游迷鲸。
即便是稳定分布的物种，其在红海的分布也并非均匀：例如印太真海豚主要局限于该区域南部，而苏伊士湾仅分布有两种瓶鼻海豚与印度洋驼海豚。未发现可信证据表明红海存在文献中提及的两种鲸类：普通小须鲸（Balaenoptera acutorostrata）与抹香鲸（Physeter macrocephalus）。
红海缺乏深潜型鲸类（如喙鲸科Ziphiidae与抹香鲸）的现象，可由曼德海峡（Straits of Bab al Mandab）的地貌特征解释：该海峡存在宽阔的浅槛，会阻碍此类物种进入红海。
作者团队的协同工作与跨专业背景，修正了过往的错误与不准确之处，验证并确认了物种鉴定结果，阐明了与物种分类学相关的关键特征，更为重要的是，为红海鲸类的保护工作提供了基础性的参考基线。

研究目的：发布红海鲸类物种的最新研究信息，并综述已发表及灰色文献中的现有资料。

补充信息：目击记录数据来源于以下机构与个人：Chris Smeenk厄立特里亚项目——Yohannes Mebrahtu；以色列海洋哺乳动物研究与救助中心（IMMRAC）：Mia Elasar、Daphna Feingold、Oz Goffman、Nir Hadar、Dan Kerem、Aviad Scheinin；Peter Rudolph红海海豚项目——HEPCA。
本数据集整合了此前发布的数据集"IMMRAC红海海洋哺乳动物目击记录"（http://seamap.env.duke.edu/dataset/1145）。
每条记录的时间分辨率存在差异，未提供具体时间值，新增"tprecision"列以标注时间分辨率。