Irrawaddy dolphin strandings in Kep, 2017–2020
Research account. This page covers the source sections identified below.
Jones, A.L., Tubbs, S.E. & Thap R. (2022). Irrawaddy dolphin Orcaella brevirostris strandings between 2017 and 2020 in Kep Province, Cambodia. Cambodian Journal of Natural History 2022(1):5–17.
Original article · Saved paper · Selected structured findings
What this tells us
The researchers documented ten fatal strandings in the Kep Archipelago between November 2017 and November 2020. Eight carcasses received basic necropsies. This is a record of detected strandings, not a population mortality rate or evidence that ten deaths were caused by fishing. The investigators could not confirm causes of death.
Source coverage
Identity and English abstract portions on PDF pages 1–2, context and methods on pages 2–4, results on page 5, and discussion/figures on page 7 were examined as text. PDF page 7 was also visually inspected, including Figures 3–5. Printed page numbers are PDF page + 4. The Khmer abstract was not verified. PDF pages 6 and 8–13, remaining figures, complete references, external supplements, corrections, funding and conflicts still require examination. Cached extraction of all pages is not a claim that all were read.
Methods and coverage limits
Reports from fishers and community leaders, and discoveries during routine surveys and patrols, supplied the cases. Locations were recorded with a Garmin 64s; the paper describes carcass recovery, photographs, body measurements and basic examinations. GPS coordinates have not been transcribed from underlying data in this account. Methods: printed p.8 / PDF p.4.
Surveillance was not a random, effort-standardised census. Carcass discovery, recovery and decomposition affect what could be examined. A detected hotspot is not necessarily a mortality-risk hotspot. The paper reports statistical seasonality, but the seasonal test and its exposure assumptions have not been independently reproduced here.
Selected findings
| Finding | Reported value | Interpretation and source |
|---|---|---|
| Fatal strandings | 10 | Detected events, November 2017–November 2020; printed pp.7–9 / PDF pp.3–5 |
| Carcasses examined by necropsy | 8 of 10 | Two were not examined; printed p.9 / PDF p.5 |
| Sex among examined carcasses | 4 male; 4 female | Denominator is eight, not ten; printed p.9 / PDF p.5 |
| Age among examined carcasses | 4 adults; 4 juveniles | No calf strandings recorded; absence from this series is not absence from the population; printed p.9 / PDF p.5 |
| Recovery setting | 8 on land; 2 in water | Includes four land reports and four land discoveries by the team; printed p.9 / PDF p.5 |
| Post-monsoon strandings | 4 of 10 | October–November, pooled across study years; printed p.9 and Fig.3 p.11 / PDF pp.5,7 |
| Evidence of fishing-gear interaction | 5 carcasses | Does not establish that interaction caused death; printed p.11 / PDF p.7 |
| Plastic ingestion and starvation | No evidence reported in the described examinations | Limited examinations and decomposition constrain detection; printed p.11 / PDF p.7 |
Results: printed p.9 / PDF p.5 · Interpretation and figures: printed p.11 / PDF p.7
Shared evidence and unresolved questions
Printed p.7 / PDF p.3 explicitly says the series includes strandings previously reported by Tubbs et al. (2019) and Jones et al. (2021). These are companion-report relationships, not additional independent events. The individual event crosswalk remains pending. Other dolphin studies in Kep may use different observations and methods.
The paper's phrase “coastline extends 17,791 km²” on printed p.7 mixes a length description with area units; it is not reused as a coastline measurement. Causes of death remain suspected, not confirmed. The full event table, dates, locations, remaining clinical observations and uncertainty need extraction before any event-level integration.
Atlas use and verification
Keep this source attached to its existing research area. Display ten reported strandings and eight necropsies with their distinct denominators; do not create ten exact points from the general-area locator or map suspected causes as confirmed bycatch. No new coordinates or population trends are supplied by this account.
This report contributes coastal biodiversity evidence. Its relationship to other reports from the same programme has not been established.