Occurrences of Indo-Pacific Finless porpoise (Neophocaena phocaenoides) off the West Coast of Penang Island, Malaysia

Abstract

The Indo-Pacific finless porpoise (Neophocaena phocaenoides) occurs in a narrow strip of shallow marine waters less than 50m deep. The finless porpoise although recorded in Malaysia has not been comprehensively studied. The documentation of the occurrence and distribution of finless porpoise in west and north-west Penang was carried out from 2011 to 2019.This included interview surveys every 3 months from December 2012 to December 2013, a collation of published literature and conducting preliminary boat surveys in 2019. A total of 240 structured, individual interviews were done with the local community. Based on the interview surveys, there were 6 sightings (n=6/240, 2.5%) of finless porpoises in 2013. Published data indicated that there were 19 sightings of finless porpoises in 2013 and 3 sightings in 2014. Twenty mortalities of finless porpoises have been recorded. Boat surveys recorded 14 sightings of finless porpoise with an encounter rate of 0.106 sightings per hour. Mean group size was 2.6 ± 0.4 SE.   The finless porpoise appears to occur in Teluk Bahang, Pantai Kerachut, Sungai Pinang and Sungai Burung in west Penang. Overall, the data suggests that there is a consistent population where line transect surveys can be done to further elucidate the population status of finless porpoises in Penang.