Spatio-temporal analysis identifies marine mammal stranding hotspots along the Indian coastline.

ABSTRACT: Marine mammal strandings provide vital information on species' life histories, population health and status of marine ecosystems. Opportunistic reporting of strandings also serve as a powerful low-cost tool for monitoring these elusive mammals. We collated data over ~ 270 years available through various open access databases, reports and publications. Annual strandings along the Indian coast (mean = 11.25 ± SE 9.1) increased in the last two years of the study (2015-2017, mean = 27.66 ± SE 8.5 strandings /year). We found that stranding events spike during June-September along the west coast and during December-January along the east coast. We identified several sections of the coastline, such as Mumbai (0.38 strandings/km), Kozhikode (0.28 strandings/km),  Tuticorin (0.4 strandings/km), Ram

SUBMITTER: Dudhat S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8904828 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature