Program Description
The Atlantic Humpback Dolphin (Sousa teuszii) is a critically endangered species that lives only in nearshore coastal waters on the western side of the African continent. These dolphins live in small populations along the coast from Morocco to Namibia. In Senegal, we are fortunate to have the largest population of this species population living in the Delta Saloum region of the central coast, primarily in mangrove channels and the nearshore coastal zone. This population likely also moves into The Gambia.
The African Aquatic Conservation Fund leads research and conservation activities in Senegal and is a member of the Consortium for the Conservation of the Atlantic Humpback Dolphin (CCAHD). In Senegal, we currently have projects that use photo identification of individual dolphins to determine population size and habitat use, passive acoustic monitoring to understand habitat use, genetics to determine the health of the population and relatedness to other populations across Africa, and carcass recovery to study dolphin physiology and baseline health. Our staff are part of CCAHD working groups that focus on field research, population health, genetics, acoustics, threat mitigation, interview surveys, and educational outreach.
