Oceanswell and Greenpeace South Asia conduct cetacean surveys in the high seas of the Indian Ocean

Greenpeace South Asia and Sri Lankan marine conservation organisation Oceanswell have just returned to Colombo following the successful completion of cetacean visual and acoustic surveys in the high seas of the Indian Ocean aboard the Greenpeace flagship Rainbow Warrior. The scientific survey was conducted under the leadership of Dr. Asha de Vos, renowned cetacean researcher and founder of Oceanswell along with a young crew of Sri Lankans from Oceanswell.

The survey track covered a total of 2431 km over 10 days and was run in the northern part of the Ninety East Ridge located in international waters East of Sri Lanka and South of the Andaman and Nicobar islands. The goal was to explore and document the cetacean diversity of this remote part of the ocean through 10 days of visual and acoustic effort. The science team coupled daytime visual surveys with 24/7 acoustic surveys to build a picture of the cetacean life within the area. At least four species of dolphins – spinner, spotted, striped and bottlenose – were visually identified, pending further acoustic data analysis by Oceanswell.