Human development is placing growing pressure on coastal ecosystems worldwide. Coastal dolphins are consequently exposed to a range of anthropogenic threats, yet for many species, limited knowledge of population size and dynamics hinders effective conservation planning. Four species of humpback dolphin ( Sousa spp.) inhabit shallow coastal waters globally, and all are threatened by human activities. Along the South African coa...

Many marine species exhibit fine‐scale population structure despite high mobility and a lack of physical barriers to dispersal, but the evolutionary drivers of differentiation in these systems are generally poorly understood. Here we investigate the potential role of habitat transitions and seasonal prey distributions on the evolution of population structure in the Indo‐Pacific bottlenose dolphin, Tursiops aduncus , off South...

True’s beaked whales have a uniquely fragmented distribution of sightings recorded, mostly from stranding reports. The species is assumed to be associated with deep oceanic waters, occurring in both the northern and southern hemispheres. A hotspot for strandings in the southern hemisphere is South Africa. The third and fourth reported stranding of True’s beaked whales for Mozambique is presented, and the first for Tofo Beach,...

Association of the sharksucker Echeneis naucrates and whitefin sharksucker E. neucratoides with the West Indian manatee Trichechus manatus and the dugong Dugong dugon is presented and discussed. Alimentary tract‐content analysis and field observations suggest that coprophagy (feeding on host faecal material) may be the primary food source for echeneids associated with sirenian hosts.