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Phuket’s marine biological research centre has published a poster of
cetaceans (whales, dolphins & porpoises) it believes are present in Thai
waters. This lists 22 species, the largest being the fin whale, growing to
27 metres and the smallest the finless porpoise, just 1.9 metres.
Many of these species are rare in these waters, and their inclusion in the
list might have been based on just one or two positive sightings over many
years. The average visitor taking to the sea here has a good chance of
spotting the most common of the marine mammals here, the bottle-nose
dolphin.
On a one-week dolphin and whale watching cruise in March 2002 in Burmese
waters adjacent to Thailand this photographer saw three different species of
cetacean: bottle nose dolphins in abundance, Indo-pacific humpback dolphins
and a single Byrd’s Whale. On another occasion I have photographed a single
killer whale, or Orca, on a return trip from the Similan islands.
Bottle-nose dolphins are quite common in the waters between Phuket and the
Phi Phi Islands, the most likely spot for visitors to see them. Divers
heading for the Similan islands will more than likely cross paths with
dolphins, which sometimes delight passengers when they surf in a boat’s bow
wave.
In addition to the whale-dolphin family the Andaman coast is home to a small
remnant population of dugongs, a marine mammal closely related to the
American manatee. There gentle creatures, sometimes called sea cows because
they graze the sea grasses in shallow water, grow to 500 kilogrammes.
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