Learning to read the Sea: Recognising whale and dolphin footprints in Indian waters

Zainul Abid, P M and Anto, Alvin and Ratheesh Kumar, R (2025) Learning to read the Sea: Recognising whale and dolphin footprints in Indian waters. The Pod: Bulletin of the Marine Mammal Consortium of India, 3. pp. 7-9.

Text Bulletin of the Marine Mammal Consortium of India_2025_Ratheesh Kumar R.pdf Download (3MB)

Abstract

I’ll never forget the first time I encountered a Bryde’s whale (Balaenoptera edeni) in the wild. We were surveying off the coast of Karnataka when something unusual caught my eye, a smooth, oval-shaped patch spreading gently across the water’s surface. At first, I wasn’t sure what I was seeing. But then it clicked. A whale had just passed beneath, and the patch was the trail it left behind. That patch, known among researchers as a ‘footprint’ , was created by the powerful motion of the whale’s tail underwater

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