A small, juvenile rorqual live-stranded on Qeshm Island, Iran, in the northern Strait of Hormuz (Persian Gulf) in September 2007. Cause of stranding remains unknown but the whale (QE22.09.2007) showed no severe traumatic injuries nor was emaciated. Based on at least seven morphological features, considered diagnostic in combination, allowed a positive identification as Omura's whale Balaenoptera omurai. Features included diminutive body size (397 cm), a large number of ventral grooves (n=82) extending caudad of the umbilicus, a strongly falcate dorsal fin, asymmetric colouration of the head (especially lower jaws) reminiscent of fin whale, including three unilateral dark stripes, faint/incomplete lateral rostral ridges, record low number of short, broad baleen plates (204 in right jaw). The likelihood for the existence of a local B. omurai population in the eastern Persian Gulf or northern Arabian Sea seems higher than the wandering of a very young animal or mother/calf pair from any of the known distant distribution areas in the eastern Indian Ocean or SW Indian Ocean (Madagascar). This is the first record of B. omurai in the NW Indian Ocean.

A small, juvenile rorqual live-stranded on Qeshm Island, Iran, in the northern Strait of Hormuz (Persian Gulf) in September 2007. Cause of stranding remains unknown but the whale (QE22.09.2007) showed no severe traumatic injuries nor was emaciated. Based on at least seven morphological features, considered diagnostic in combination, allowed a positive identification as Omura's whale Balaenoptera omurai. Features included diminutive body size (397 cm), a large number of ventral grooves (n=82) extending caudad of the umbilicus, a strongly falcate dorsal fin, asymmetric colouration of the head (especially lower jaws) reminiscent of fin whale, including three unilateral dark stripes, faint/incomplete lateral rostral ridges, record low number of short, broad baleen plates (204 in right jaw). The likelihood for the existence of a local B. omurai population in the eastern Persian Gulf or northern Arabian Sea seems higher than the wandering of a very young animal or mother/calf pair from any of the known distant distribution areas in the eastern Indian Ocean or SW Indian Ocean (Madagascar). This is the first record of B. omurai in the NW Indian Ocean.

The humpback whale has long been considered a rare straggler into the Persian Gulf, however new evidence contradicts this concept. We here critically review published and new records for Megaptera novaeangliae occurrence in the Gulf for the period 1883-2017. Of eight authenticated records (6 specimens, 2 live-sightings), seven are contemporary cases while one is a mid-Holocene specimen from UAE. An additional four are possible but unsubstantiated reports. Four regional, current, range states are confirmed, i.e. Iran, Iraq, Kuwait and Qatar. Four of the five newly reported cases are from Iran's coastal waters. We conclude that the Persian Gulf is part of the habitual range of the Arabian Sea humpback whale population, and has been since at least the mid-Holocene. It is unknown whether frequent passage occurs through the Strait of Hormuz or whether whales are (semi)resident. The low abundance of this endangered population and frequent deleterious anthropogenic events, particularly ship strikes and net entanglements, are cause for major concern. In view of its historical and taxonomic relevance, the formal description of Megaptera indica Gervais, 1883, from Iraq, now thought to be a subspecies M. novaeangliae indica, is here translated from French. On a new species of the genus Megaptera, originating from the Bay of Basora [Al-Basra] (Persian Gulf) by H.-P. Gervais (1883). Translated and annotated [in square brackets] by one of us (KVW. » The genus Megaptera, as established by the authors of the Ostéographie des Cétacés [i.e. Van Beneden & Gervais, 1880] comprehends four distinct species; the first two, the Megaptera Boops [(Fabricius, 1780)] and Megaptera Lalandii [(Fisher, 1829)] are established with certainty; the two others, Megaptera Novae-Zelandiae [Gray, 1864] and Megaptera Kuzira [Gray, 1850] are described only provisionally as their characteristics are still insufficiently clear. » Although Mr. [Pierre-Joseph] Van Beneden, in a recent work, has come back from the idea that he formulated 20 years ago that there exists but a single cosmopolitan species of Megaptera, namely Megaptera Boops, we think that we can demonstrate from a study that we undertook, through the comparison of new material accumulated at the anatomical collections of the Paris Museum, that the law of species distribution established for the [families] Balaenidae and Balaenopteridae, has to apply also to Megaptera and that the number of species of this group have to be recognised as three. These are the Megaptera Boops, inhabiting the Northern Hemisphere; the Megaptera Lalandii which frequents the southern part of the Atlantic Ocean, and the Megaptera of the Persian Gulf, which is the subject of the present note, a species which is supposed to inhabit the Indian Ocean and to which we propose to give the name Megaptera indica, since the individual obtained for the collections of the Museum would only have penetrated the Persian Gulf accidentally, from where it was shipped to us. » The size of the humpback whale of the Persian Gulf, which ha...

Iran has 1,700km of coastline that borders the Persian Gulf and the Arabian Sea in the northwest Indian Ocean. Apart from a handful of records, almost nothing is known about which marine mammal species occur in Iranian waters. This review was conducted to fill this information gap. A total of 127 marine mammal records of 14 species were compiled from Iranian coastal waters. Ninety-nine were from the Persian Gulf, 26 from the Gulf of Oman and 2 were of unknown location. Records of finless porpoise (Neophocaena phocaenoides) (25), Indo-Pacific humpback dolphin (Sousa chinensis) (24) and Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops aduncus) (22) were by far the most numerous, a probable reflection of their inshore distribution and local abundance. Other species recorded were long-beaked common dolphin (Delphinus capensis tropicalis), roughtoothed dolphin (Steno bredanensis), striped dolphin (Stenella coeruleoalba), spinner dolphin (Stenella longirostris), Risso’s dolphin (Grampus griseus), false killer whale (Pseudorca crassidens), sperm whale (Physeter macrocephalus) and dugong (Dugong dugon). Records of 26 mysticetes were compiled, 10 of which were tentatively identified as Bryde’s whales (Balaenoptera edeni), 1 possible fin whale (Balaenoptera physalus), 3 humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) and the remainder were not identified to species. The largest threat to small cetaceans in Iran is likely to be incidental capture in fishing gear. Nine finless porpoises were recorded as bycatch and this and other coastal species may be declining due to unsustainable mortality rates. Some of the world’s busiest shipping lanes pass through Iranian waters and ship strikes are likely to be the largest threat to mysticetes in the area.

The humpback whale has long been considered a rare straggler into the Persian Gulf, however new evidence contradicts this concept. We here critically review published and new records for Megaptera novaeangliae occurrence in the Gulf for the period 1883-2017. Of eight authenticated records (6 specimens, 2 live-sightings), seven are contemporary cases while one is a mid-Holocene specimen from UAE. An additional four are possible but unsubstantiated reports. Four regional, current, range states are confirmed, i.e. Iran, Iraq, Kuwait and Qatar. Four of the five newly reported cases are from Iran's coastal waters. We conclude that the Persian Gulf is part of the habitual range of the Arabian Sea humpback whale population, and has been since at least the mid-Holocene. It is unknown whether frequent passage occurs through the Strait of Hormuz or whether whales are (semi)resident. The low abundance of this endangered population and frequent deleterious anthropogenic events, particularly ship strikes and net entanglements, are cause for major concern. In view of its historical and taxonomic relevance, the formal description of Megaptera indica Gervais, 1883, from Iraq, now thought to be a subspecies M. novaeangliae indica, is here translated from French.