Marine mammal stranding records from the south coast of Iran between 2010 and 2020

This is the authors' abstract. We don't add key points for this paper.

Systematic recording of marine mammal strandings provides useful data on species occurrence, distribution, abundance, and threats, especially in regions with limited information like southern Iran. This study reports on strandings data collected by the Iran National Stranding Network across four coastal provinces bordering on the Persian Gulf and Oman Sea over the ten-year period from 2010 to 2020. A total of 167 stranding events involving 177 individuals were documented, comprising 14 marine mammal species: 11 odontocetes, two mysticetes and a dugong. The most commonly stranded species was the Indo-Pacific finless porpoise (Neophocaena phocaenoides) (n = 38), followed by Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops aduncus) (n = 23), and Indian Ocean humpback dolphins (Sousa plumbea) (n = 23). The greatest number of strandings occurred in the Hormozgan (47%) and Bushehr (37%) provinces, which have the longest coastlines. Stranding reports were nearly twice as frequent during the colder boreal winter (October–March) than the warmer spring and summer months (April–September). Over 65% of the records with enough information to allow analysis (n = 104/167) bore signs of fisheries interactions. Given the challenges of conducting boat-based research in Iran, stranding data are invaluable for understanding marine mammal populations, and expanding the stranding network is crucial for conservation efforts.