Surprisingly, explains Moore, the dolphins found in Sicily are in the same offshore group as those far away in the Azores. Yet, they don\u2019t seem to interact with coastal dolphins, despite swimming through their waters. “These dolphins have really high gene flow between Sicily and Azores, but virtually nothing between those dolphins and all the coastal populations they must pass along the way,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
Local researchers had suspected that this might be the case. \u201cWhen you see them in the field, you can see they’re different,\u201d says marine biologist and co-author Emily Cunningham MBE, who is married to Moore. \u201cThey’re bigger, they behave differently.\u201d<\/p>\n
Having data to conclusively back up this was \u201cone of those light bulb moments,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
Moore believes cultural differences explain why there is so little interbreeding between the two groups. \u201cIf I wasn’t married to Emily, the chances of me getting a Japanese girlfriend is very unlikely because I don’t speak Japanese,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n Another twist in the tale is that the researchers were only sampling dolphins in the Azores as an outlier group. \u201cThis was going to confirm that our Mediterranean dolphins were separate,\u201d says Moore. \u201cThere was no expectation at all that, actually, some of them could be the same population.\u201d<\/p>\n Yet, the choice of this location is \u201cgame changing,\u201d he says, because without samples from the Azores, \u201cI don’t think we would have discovered this.\u201d<\/p>\n Bottlenose dolphins are a protected species in the Mediterranean. Knowing that there are two different ecotypes gives us an insight into the different threats they might face in their offshore or coastal habitats.<\/p>\n \u201cUnderstanding the population structure of protected species and how that relates to their abundance and threats, such as bycatch, may help assess the risk of extinction of certain populations,\u201d says Dr Tilen Genov, assistant professor at the University of Primorska and founder of Morigenos \u2013 Slovenian Marine Mammal Society. This enables experts to work up suitable conservation measures.<\/p>\n \u201cAs ocean custodians,” adds Cunningham, “we need to understand that so we can better protect them in their environment.\u201d<\/p>\n