In a rare incident, five endangered Indian Ocean Humpback Dolphins were spotted near Rajodi beach off Vashi coast on Sunday. A tourist guide spotted the pod of dolphins swimming close to the shore. The rare sight has been attracting a lot of people in the Nalasopara region since the past seven days. Blu Life Adventures which conduct water sports on the beach said that since past one week they had been spotting dolphins swimming close to the shore.

Hindustan Times quoted N Vasudevan, additional principal chief conservator of forest, state mangrove cell as saying, "A pod (group) of nine dolphins has been spotted at various locations along Mumbai’s coast from Gateway of India, Elephanta Caves, Versova and Madh jetty going all the way towards the Thane creek end, and this sighting might be of the same pod." Carcass of Dolphin Washes Ashore Fort Kochi Beach in Kerala, Watch Video.

He added saying, "We have initiated a five-year-long study using noise monitoring instruments at sea to understand the behaviour and habitat of these species, which will tell us why they are moving closer to the coastline." Over the weekend, the humpback dolphins were found swimming close to the beach around 11 am. Rare White Dolphins Spotted Along the World's Longest Sea Bridge in China, See Videos and Pics.

Dolphins spotted at Mumbai Beach:

Watch the video here:

In January, two humpback dolphins were spotted near the Bandra-Worli sea link and the Sasson Docks. In 2018, the decomposed carcass of an Indian Ocean humpback dolphin was found at Versova Beach. In a similar incident in 2017, another carcass had washed ashore in Bandra's Carter Road Promenade. The International Union for Conservation of Nature classified the dolphin as endangered species. These dolphins generally live in shallow, coastal wasters that often puts them at high risk of getting entangled in fishnets.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Feb 13, 2019 02:30 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).