As the sun dipped lower, the last boats set off into Sinquerim Bay in North Goa. We were a group of 14 tourists on a fibreglass boat, strapped with life jackets going out to sea like entitled but amateur sea farers. The light had begun to soften as we entered, what the boatman called, the “dolphin territory”.

A silver fin sliced through the water and everyone on the boat let out a collective gasp. “Dolphin! There’s a dolphin!”

Around us, a small pod surfaced — dusky grey, curved backs arcing briefly before slipping away. Pretty soon, the silence of the sea was broken by the buzz of approaching motors.

Within minutes, four more boats had crowded into the cove, each carrying tourists craning for a glimpse, a photograph. We were the “lucky boat” for arriving and spotting the pod first — the mammals had surfaced in the brief lull between rides. The quiet was quickly shattered by noise, fumes and frantic anticipation. The dolphins, briefly visible, began to scatter, emerging farther from us. It was clear we were being avoided.

The “tour” now felt like a siege. We had come looking for a gentle, coastal species, but stayed long enough to become the threat.

The Indian ocean humpback dolphin (Sousa plumbea) is listed as endangered on the IUCN Red List, placing it among species facing the highest conservation risks globally. Impacted by human activities in the sea and on land, they are fast disappearing throughout their range.

Marine mammals are a remarkable and varied group — bound to water but breathing air; warm-blooded like their land cousins; raising young on milk and wearing a trace of hair. They have adapted to live, hunt, and breed in seas, estuaries, lagoons and rivers, inhabiting the restless margins where water meets land. This wide-ranging family includes cetaceans (whales, dolphins, porpoises), sirenians (manatees and dugongs), pinnipeds (seals, sea lions and walruses), otters and polar bears.

Of the 90 species of cetaceans, India’s waters are home to about 31-33 species, including the National Aquatic Animal — the Gangetic dolphin — a freshwater dolphin that navigates the Ganges-Brahmaputra river system.

Along India’s coast, another dolphin species favours nearshore waters — the Indian ocean humpback dolphin. These mammals prefer waters no deeper than 25 metres: estuaries, coral reefs, rocky shores, quiet lagoons and sheltered bays.

A human-like dolphin

“Cognitively and socially, cetaceans (whales and dolphins) are similar to humans, they’re sentient beings with strong social structures and analytical thinking and complex behaviours. Most species show a high degree of site fidelity (the tendency of an animal to return to a previously occupied location),” says Dipani Sutaria, an environmentalist specialising in behavioural ecology. She is a key member of the Marine Mammal Research and Conservation Network of India, a collective of ecologists that maintains vital research databases and supports stranding response networks.

Ecologists point out that despite their intelligence, humpback dolphins remain largely understudied and unknown along India’s coasts. While humpback dolphins have been recorded in shallow nearshore waters (up to 15 m depth) from all coastal Indian states, a 2015 paper co-authored by Sutaria states that the east coast has a different species than the west coast and the distribution pattern of humpback dolphins on the east coast of India is more discontinuous than that on the west coast given the breaks in their preferred shallow habitat.

The humpback dolphin is listed as a Schedule I species under the Indian Wild Life (Protection) Act, granting it the same legal status as the tiger. However, unlike their terrestrial counterparts which benefit from focused conservation efforts and funding, marine mammals are largely neglected.

Raking in revenue, but no recognition

Goa is the only place with an established and dense tourism industry on the west coast of the dolphin territory. While this means thousands of tourists get on dolphin safaris each season, it has also contributed to some awareness of the coastal species. However, beyond serving as a spectacle and a revenue stream, the state has done little to protect its dolphins or their coastal habitats, which are increasingly impacted by tourism and fishing.

This disconnect surfaced publicly in November 2024 when posters prepared by the Goa Tourism Department for the World Tourism Fair in London — meant to highlight the state’s natural heritage — had images of Bottlenose dolphins instead of the humpback dolphins. Conservationists and ecologists flagged the mistake, calling it a reflection of the disregard for a keystone species.

This absence in policy and public consciousness has meant there is very little funding and scientific understanding of the species. “While the Indian ocean humpback dolphins are scattered along India’s western coastline, we estimate that southern Maharashtra and Goa might be hosting the largest remaining populations,” says Sutaria, “but long-term photo-identification studies are needed to map home ranges, residence rates and population dynamics.” Such research is demanding — logistically and financially — and tangled in permissions from forest departments, fisheries, and the coast guard.

The discrepancy between law and practice

Ecologists argue that the disconnect between legal protection and on-ground realities underscores the urgent need for investment in science-based conservation, not just symbolic inclusion. In its absence, dolphins face mounting threats from unregulated tourism and water sports, coastal construction and noise, and intensive fishing in ecologically-sensitive zones.

“Why does nobody bother about this dolphin?” asks Pooja Mitra, who formerly headed WWF Goa and now runs Terra Conscious, an enterprise promoting sustainable dolphin-watching. “Dolphin-watching has turned into a volume-driven activity. It’s even categorised as a water sport in Goa.” Mitra has been working to sensitise boat operators in the state. She was among the key members who galvanised the setting up of the Stranding Response Network — a 500-strong network including lifeguards stationed along Goa’s beaches, who have been officially contracted to record animals surfacing on the coastline.

Mitra points to the lack of formal dolphin watching guidelines or regulation on the tourist boats that throng a relatively narrow stretch of coast in a state with a thriving tourism industry. In September 2024, the Sinquerim-Candolim Watersports Association which manages 196 dolphin-watching boats at the busy jetty, and is one of the few boat associations sensitised to the impact of the boat rides on the dolphins, wrote to the Captain of Ports, Goa Tourism, requesting that no new licences should be issued to new boats due to overcrowding. Mitra adds that the State also needs to enforce regulations, codes of conduct, and certification systems for marine guides or naturalists — people who might offer insight into the ecology and behaviour of these sea creatures.

Missing from cultural memory

Unlike the river dolphins, who are woven into mythology and memory, the marine dolphins are absent from our cultural narratives. Tourists may pay to watch dolphins surface, but few are curious about their life history, behaviours, or rhythms. The recognition that these sentient mammals are raising families much like us, may shift perspectives — though their life histories have not been studied in depth, ecologists estimate that humpback calves are weaned around two years of age, but may stay with their mothers for four to six years. The death of one female dolphin can mean the loss of several future generations.

“Around 36 dolphin deaths are recorded every year, but the figures may be much more as ocean currents during certain seasons may carry away the carcasses,” says researcher Imran Samad from the Centre for Ecological Sciences, IISc, Bengaluru, who is studying Goa’s dolphins for his PhD. “Summer months and August-September see more deaths. We are studying the factors causing this, such as greater overlap of fishing and dolphins — reduction in fish stocks forces dolphins to compete with fishers for their food source, leading to a higher chance of getting entangled in fishing gear,” says Samad, who is studying trends in unnatural mortality rates of dolphins by looking closely at interactions between dolphins and fishing and tourism.

Excessive tourism has already impacted dolphin behaviour. “Sometimes there are 40-50 boats in the water. When dolphins are chased, they get exhausted, they cannot dive when tired and they surface to breathe. Just like we cannot run when tired and stop to catch our breath,” says Samad, who has been using drones to monitor dolphin response to high tourism activity. Sutaria adds that the long-term effects of this stress on the mammal’s social and reproductive behaviour needs to be studied.

Fishing poses another grave threat. Monofilament gill nets and shark nets are responsible for high mortality rates. “More dolphins are killed in nets than whale sharks,” says Sutaria, especially post implementation of whale shark protection programme. Other destructive practices, like purse seine fishing and ghost nets — abandoned gear that entangle marine life — and getting hit by boat propellers and ingesting plastic, add to the toll. In late 2024, the marine mammal stranding network recorded a grim pattern: three pregnant finless porpoises washed ashore in the same area within a week. Fishing nets are one of the stressors porpoises face, adds Mitra. Overfishing compounds the crisis, as dwindling fish stocks undermine the dolphins’ primary food source.

Collective action for protection

Researchers and conservationists are working to drive greater attention and action for the protection of these dolphins. Last year the Indian Ocean Humpback Dolphin Conservation Network was formed to bring together scientists across 17 countries in the western Indian ocean and Arabian sea region, to strengthen collaborative research and support local conservation initiatives across the dolphin’s range.

Solutions are complex, as dolphin conservation intersects with livelihoods, tourism revenues, and fragmented governance across multiple departments. Some scientific interventions have been tested but require nuanced implementation. Pingers — acoustic devices designed to deter dolphins from getting close to fishing boats — can backfire, Sutaria notes, as the animals often learn to associate the sound with food. “In Kerala, fishers reported that within a year, pingers failed to deter humpbacks,” she adds. Modified nets developed by ICAR-Central Institute of Fisheries Technology, Kochi, have also shown mixed results.

Both Mitra and Sutaria point out that incentivising fishers to release dolphins — as piloted with whale sharks — offers hope but needs careful design.

Ultimately, protecting the Indian ocean humpback dolphin requires more than tools. It demands empathy, sustained attention, and a shift in how we view marine life — not as spectacle, but as co-inhabitants of a fragile coastline.

Without intervention, these sentient mammals may vanish — leaving behind quieter seas and a diminished evolutionary legacy.

Read more: Endangered Gangetic dolphins found in most tributaries of Ganges, prompting urgent conservation

Banner image: Tour boats taking visitors on dolphin safaris encircle a pod of dolphins. Image by Imran Samad.

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Arathimenon Editor

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