Berhampur: The forest department has spotted 26 saline water dolphins - 15 humpback and 11 bottlenose - along the 54km Ganjam coastline during a survey conducted on Friday.

The Ganjam coast, which is famous for the mass nesting of olive ridley turtles, is also proved to be a potential habitat for dolphins, said Berhampur divisional forest officer Asish Kumar Behera. "The bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus) is one of the most well-known species of dolphin. This stocky species has a torpedo-shaped body, a short beak and pointed flippers. They are usually dark grey on the back with paler grey flanks and a white or pinkish belly," Behera said.

Humpback dolphins live close to shore. Humpback dolphins are very shy. They swim in small groups and as a result, they are not easy to spot. Humpback dolphins are grey with a darker dorsal than ventral side.

The entire coastal stretch from Prayagi to Pati Sonepur was divided into four segments and each segment of a stretch of 13 to 14km was equipped with boat and six to seven personnel.

"We deployed four boats and 27 personnel, who conducted the survey through direct sighting from 6am to 11am," said the divisional forest officer. Twenty-four dolphins of two species had been sighted by wildlife personnel during their first-ever census of the mammal in 2015. There was no census in 2016 due to bad weather. In 2017, the number of dolphin increased to 29, an official source said.