IMIS

This dataset represents a female short-beaked common dolphin (Delphinus delphis) recorded in the northern Adriatic Sea, a region where the species has become extremely rare. The animal was sighted repeatedly in the two locations shown. It was initially sighted with a calf, at the 1st location, in the port of Monfalcone (northern Adriatic Sea). The two dolphins were repeatedly sighted there between June 2010 and January 2011, in an area of 1.2 km². In February 2011, the calf disappeared, while the adult was subsequently repeatedly sighted between Monfalcone and the city of Trieste until September 2011, when it disappeared as well. A comparison with a catalog of 171 naturally marked short-beaked common dolphins from the Inner Ionian Sea Archipelago, Greece, revealed that the adult was encountered there in August 2008. If moving in a straight line, the animal would have traveled a minimum of 1000 km between the two sites. This is the longest documented movement for any individual of this species, worldwide.

While the animal was sighted repeatedly between June 2010 and September 2011, only two records are given. Both records represent locations where the animal was sighted most often. Morigenos is an independent and non-profit, scientific non-governmental organization that aims to combine scientific research, monitoring, education, public awareness, capacity building and management, to achieve effective conservation of the marine environment and biodiversity.

The central activity of Morigenos is the Slovenian Dolphin Project, a long-term research, monitoring and conservation programme, focusing on bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) in Slovenian and adjacent waters in the northern Adriatic Sea. Research activities focus on dolphin distribution, abundance, social structure, habitat use, feeding habits, fishery interactions and tourism impact through dedicated boat surveys, land-based watches and theodolite tracking, photo-identification and mark-recapture techniques, behavioural observations and passive acoustic monitoring.

Other activities include research on loggerhead sea turtles (Caretta caretta), education, public awareness and capacity building.

Further information can be found at www.morigenos.org.