The bottlenose dolphin is a cosmopolitan species of which two ecotypes are recognised: the coastal form has a high level of site fidelity with limited movements whereas the offshore form tends to be less restricted in range and movements. In Ireland, two SACs for the bottlenose dolphin have been designated: one in the Shannon Estuary (Lower River Shannon SAC) and one in Connemara (West Connacht Coast SAC). In 2011, Mirimin et al. revealed fine scale population segregation and provided important understandings concerning the isolation of bottlenose dolphin populations where no obvious barrier to gene flow is present.
The aim of this study was to use laser-photogrammetry on photo-id images in order to provide data on morphometrics of bottlenose dolphins and to explore potential differences in the morphology of bottlenose dolphins from different populations.
Good quality images showing both BH-DF and DF were used to obtain the measurements from the scale provided by the distance of the two laser dots and then ImageJ was used to get the total body length estimates. SD and CV were used to test the accuracy of the measurements. However, due to the relevant data being unavailable we could only make suggestions and confirm that the potential of laser-photogrammetry is undeniable.
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