1. Information gaps resulting from incomplete data used to describe habitat configuration frequently hinder the efficacy of habitat protection action (HPA) for an animal with a wide distribution range. Such concerns are particularly important for the Indo-Pacific humpback dolphin, inhabiting disturbed coastal and estuarine habitats.2. This study inspected the likely habitat use of the Taiwanese humpback dolphin, an endemic subspecies that inhabits a highly disturbed habitat. Habitat use was evaluated using species distribution modelling with occurrence data from field surveys and remotely sensed oceanographic layers.3. Likely core habitats of the Taiwanese humpback dolphin were predicted near estuaries. The chlorophyll-a concentration was the primary factor affecting the distribution of the Taiwanese humpback dolphin. Bathymetry influenced the humpback dolphin distribution in the early 1980s, but became less important in the early 2010s. 4. Significant sea surface temperature increases in the estuarine and coastal waters and chlorophyll-a concentration decreases in the inshore waters were observed from the 1980s to the 2010s, indicating declining ecosystem productivity and shifting ecosystem functions. These oceanographic changes may be associated with adverse consequences of coastal alterations in western Taiwan. 5.We propose revising the current HPA scope by refining the HPA zoning, integrating coastal and watershed management, implementing regulatory fishery management, and designing and conducting restoration measures in compromised habitats and watershed landscapes.The need to reassess the current baselines of habitat use and HPA complex for the humpback dolphin across its natural range has been addressed.

Identifying and evaluating potentially suitable tools to assess the status of 2 cetaceans in coastal waters with high levels of anthropogenic threat represents a first 3 step towards effective cetacean conservation management. Local ecological 4 knowledge (LEK) can often provide more extensive information on focal species and 5 biological resources than is available from standard ecological surveys, and is 6 increasingly recognized as an important source of data for conservation research and 7 management, but it has rarely been used as a tool to assess the status of cetaceans. We 8 investigated the efficacy of using LEK from local fishers combined with stranding 9 records to characterise the diversity and distribution of coastal cetaceans in the 10 northern South China Sea, a region with high historical levels of cetacean abundance 11 and diversity but which is experiencing intensifying anthropogenic pressures. Fishers 12 were unable to identify most regionally occurring cetaceans to species level. However, 13 we were able to determine the distributions of eight categories of cetaceans that were 14 observed by fishers, and a previously unknown population of Indo-Pacific humpback 15 dolphin reported from the coastal waters of Hainan that was later confirmed through 16 boat-based surveys. The number of sightings of different cetacean categories reported 17 by fishers has a significant positive linear relationship with independent data on 18 numbers of stranded cetaceans, validating the accuracy of our respondent data and 19 indicating that LEK can provide useful, quantitative information on abundance 20 rankings of different cetacean categories.21

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In this study, we used the next-generation sequencing method to deduce the complete mitogenome of Ginkgo-toothed beaked whale (Mesoplodon ginkgodens) for the first time. The nucleotide composition was asymmetric (33.3% A, 25.3% C, 12.6% G, and 28.7% T) with an overall GC content of 37.9%. The length of the assembled mitogenome was 16,339 bp and follows the typical vertebrate arrangement, including 13 protein coding genes, 22 transfer RNAs, 2 ribosomal RNAs genes, and a non-coding control region of D-loop. The D-loop contains 870 bp and is located between tRNA-Pro and tRNA-Phe. The complete mitogenome of Ginkgo-toothed beaked whale deduced in this study provides essential and important DNA molecular data for further phylogenetic and evolutionary analysis for cetaceans.