Observations of the First Documented Indian Ocean Humpback Dolphin (Sousa plumbea) in the Northernmost Red Sea Gulf of Aqaba

On 3 January 2021, an apparently healthy adult female Indian Ocean humpback dolphin (Sousa plumbea), accompanied by her seemingly thriving nursing calf, was observed in the Eilat Marina in the Gulf of Aqaba, Israel (Figure 1a-c). The adult female was named “Ella,” and on 14 January 2021, following a southern gale, Ella was sighted alone and was assumed to have lost her calf. Since then and until her last sighting on 14 June 2022, she had been sighted during daytime hours almost daily in sandy shallow coastal waters along a 2.1-km narrow strip from Eilat Marina to Eilat North Beach lagoon and to Aqaba Marina, Jordan, with most of her observations in the Eilat Lagoon (Figure 2b). She had not been documented in the vicinity of coral patches in Eilat or in Aqaba. She had also never been documented associating with local Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops aduncus) or with the three free-ranging Black Sea common bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus ponticus), residents of Eilat Dolphin Reef, which regularly frequented the same area. Ella was also clear of scars and tooth rakes that might have indicated unobserved interspecific contact.