JEDDAH: The waters of the Red Sea along Saudi Arabia’s coast have become a vibrant natural stage, with pods of dolphins appearing near shorelines and along shipping lanes. These captivating sightings are emerging as a positive indicator for the health of the Red Sea’s marine ecosystem.
Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea waters are a thriving sanctuary for marine life, hosting 12 species of dolphins and small whales, according to the National Center for Wildlife.
Nearshore and reef-adjacent waters are frequently visited by the Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops aduncus) and the spinner dolphin (Stenella longirostris). Common bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) are also present, but tend to favor deeper offshore waters.
Beyond these familiar faces, the Red Sea is home to a wider array of cetaceans that are less often documented. These include the Indo-Pacific humpback dolphin (Sousa plumbea), which inhabits shallow coastal areas, the pantropical spotted dolphin (Stenella attenuata), Risso’s dolphin (Grampus griseus), and larger relatives such as the false killer whale (Pseudorca crassidens), which may be more common than sightings suggest. Rare visitors like killer whales (Orcinus orca) and offshore species such as the rough-toothed dolphin (Steno bredanensis), striped dolphin (Stenella coeruleoalba), long-beaked common dolphin (Delphinus capensis), and short-finned pilot whale (Globicephala macrorhynchus) are known to appear sporadically but require documented evidence for confirmation.
