Good news from India! The Arabian Sea Humpback whale has been added to the Central Government's Recovery Programme for Critically Endangered Species. The programme, which falls under the Ministry of Forests, Environment and Climate Change, India (MoEFCC), is a component of a Centrally sponsored scheme titled 'Integrated Development of Wildlife Habitats'.  In June ...

In December 2017,  India hosted a two-part workshop and training course, aimed to build capacity for marine mammal research and conservation throughout the country.  The first part of the workshop involved marine mammal scientists from the US, India and beyond. The second component the Marine Mammal Research in India Symposium ...

Lake Bled - and the view from the meeting rooms at the IWC's Scientific Committee meetings in 2018 The Scientific Committee of the International Whaling Commission (IWC) met from April 25th- May 7th in Bled, Slovenia.  The ASWN was well represented at this meeting with invited participants from Oman's Ministry ...

Last week two new papers were published revealing important information about feeding and parasites in blue whales off Sri Lanka and humpback whale song off the Goan coast of India.  Read the full abstracts of these papers below: de Vos A, Faux CE, Marthick J, Dickinson J, Jarman SN. 2018 ...

In January 2018, a number of ASWN members gathered in Muscat for a workshop focusing on the final stages of development and capacity building for the creation of the ASWN regional data platform. The platform is being developed with Wild Me/Flukebook, and should be ready for wider use throughout the ...

Luban, the first Arabian Sea humpback whale to have been documented crossing from Oman to India, has now completed a return journey, and is once again swimming in the waters around Masriah Island where she was originally tagged in November 2017.   Luban's tag has been transmitting signals for over 17 weeks ...

(Adapted from a press release issued by ESO and WWF Pakistan) As part of its efforts to protect and conserve endangered whales, the Environment Society of Oman (ESO) hosted a workshop on Managing Data for Whale Conservation in the Arabian Sea. The workshop, organized jointly by ESO and WWF-Pakistan aimed ...

Press release issued by WWF  Pakistan on January 6th, 2018: Karachi, January 6: The Ministry of Climate Change (MoCC), Government of Pakistan declared the Indus River Canyon (Exclusive Economic Zone) as a Marine Protected Area (MPA) through notification No. 9-5/2001 (BD) on Saturday. This is the second Marine Protected Area ...

Since our earlier post on December 27th, Luban, the humpback whale tagged off the coast of Oman in November 2017, has continued to attract attention featuring in press articles on both sides of the Arabian Sea.  Luban spent several days off the southwest coast of India, and ASWN member, Dipani ...

Official press release from the Environment Society of Oman (27 December, 2017): “Luban” an Arabian Sea Humpback Whale tagged in the Gulf of Masirah last month, has made the first recorded trans-oceanic crossing across the Arabian Sea. “Luban” is one of 14 whales that have been tagged by the Environment ...