KARACHI, Jan 12: A short course on marine mammals is being organised for the first time in Pakistan by the University of Karachi from January 15. This was announced by a KU spokesman on Friday.

He said this course was a part of the Higher Education Commission (HEC) and the British Council (BC) link and the 'Darwin Initiative project'.

The course will cover introduction to cetacean biology, evolution, diversity, distribution, identification and survey techniques, conservation and management.

According to course coordinators Dr Pirzada Jamal Siddiqui and Qadeer Mohammad Ali, a higher education link was developed in 2004 between the Centre of Excellence in Marine Biology (CEMB), University of Karachi, and University (of London) Marine Biological Station at Millport (UMBSM), funded by the HEC and managed by the British Council Karachi.

In 2005, HEC-BC link team was able to obtain funding from DEFRA for Darwin Initiative project on cetacean conservation in Pakistan.

Coordinators expressed satisfaction over the project's first year progress by referring some exciting sightings in the coastal areas of Sindh and Balochistan. The new season started with unusual and fruitful records of spinner dolphins and humpback dolphins.

The survey team recorded hundreds of spinner dolphins in the continental shelf and humpback dolphins in the Indus deltaic areas.

Research students (MPhil/PhD) from CEMB are involved in the research. Further, a group is also being developed with the title ‘Pakistan Whale and Dolphin Group’ to gather people interested in conserving cetaceans (whales, dolphin, porpoises) and raise awareness among general public about cetacean conservation in Pakistan.-—APP