Réseau de conservation des dauphins à bosse de l’océan Indien – HuDoNet
Endangered Indian Ocean humpback dolphins are restricted to a very narrow strip of shallow (<25m ) coastal waters around the rim of the western Indian Ocean, including some of its islands and adjoining Gulfs. This habitat preference exposes the species to a range of anthropogenic threats, and many preferred areas are intensely fished, exposed to maritime traffic and are frequently modified and polluted. In many areas humpback dolphin numbers are declining at a rapid rate.
Gill Braulik, Els Vermeulen and Ada Natoli recognised that the conservation of the species across its range is much too big for any one researcher or organisation to handle and realised that the solution needs to be bigger too. They decided that the best way to galvanise the necessary conservation action would be to create a network of researchers and conservationists that share their concerns. Funds were secured to develop a network and employ a coordinator. They invited representatives from 16 countries in Sousa plumbea’s range to join the network, as well as some international researchers who work on the species. Thirty-six people from 13 range states and beyond met online at the end of November 2023 to establish who was keen to be involved, to listen to one another’s challenges and to consider how creating a network might help to overcome some of the challenges. The participants could see the value in creating a network and began to develop the structure and some shared goals for the Indian Ocean Humpback Dolphin Conservation Network – HuDoNet for short.
Les prochaines étapes de HuDoNet consistent à définir des objectifs pour le réseau en identifiant les lacunes dans les connaissances, les menaces qui pèsent sur l’espèce et en donnant la priorité aux objectifs vitaux en matière de recherche et de conservation. Ces objectifs devraient nous aider à progresser vers un objectif plus large, à savoir l’élaboration d’un plan d’action pour la conservation de l’espèce, fondé sur des données probantes et pouvant être mis en œuvre par les gouvernements et les personnes dont les activités ont un lien avec ce dauphin timide et énigmatique.
Contributor: Shanan Atkins, HuDoNet coordinator
