Page 10 - Whales and Dolphins

Introduction

Between seas and oceans, whales swim in the clear blue waters. They rise from
the depths of the unknown, in a search for life. To breathe, they breach the ocean
surface – that is a mirror to the sky – and briefly enter our world. Through their
paths and their wanderings between a tide’s ebb and flow, they leave behind
waves of behavior, unanswered questions that intrigue us to dive deeper to
unlock their mysteries. This book brings the stories to life of these incredible
animals that roam the seas of the Sultanate of Oman, revealing unique their
characteristics and patterns of behavior.

The coastal strip of the Sultanate of Oman extends across more than 3,165 km
overlooking three seas: The Arabian Gulf, the Sea of Oman and the Arabian Sea.
They interconnect to create a unique marine environment in the Sultanate and
provide a complex food web to support the life and reproduction of an
extraordinary diversity of marine creatures, including large mammals. The
depths of these teeming waters is home to fourteen different species of
dolphins, large and small, along with three species of both baleen whales and
toothed whales.

Within the wealth of this diversity, the Arabian humpback whale is the most
unique and rare. Only one hundred have been documented. Research studies
and satellite tracking have revealed they are endemic to the Arabian Sea. Unlike
other whales that spend their lives roaming the open ocean, their home and
habitat is just off the Omani coast. Here, the seasonal climate conditions that
occur in the southern seas of the Sultanate provide the Arabian humpback
whale with a rich diversity of food throughout the year. Uniquely, it allows this
population of the Arabian humpback whale to remain in the waters around
Oman rather than migrating to Antarctic waters as many of their cousins, who
live in the Southern Hemisphere, are forced to do.

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