European Ocean Biodiversity Information System

IMMRAC is a purely voluntary registered nonprofit organization dedicated to the conservation of cetacean populations in the Eastern Mediterranean and in the northern Red Sea, through scientific research and public education. IMMRAC is a partner of ACCOBAMS. Research activities are under the academic auspices of the Institute for Maritime Studies in the University of Haifa. Open Sea research focuses on the socio-ecology of the resident bottlenose dolphin population through half-day surveys from inflatable boats and private yachts. Research activity along the 190 km-long Israeli Mediterranean coast is conducted throughout the year, weather permitting. IMMRAC collates shore-based and boat-based cetacean sightings, the latter from dedicated surveys as well as from platforms of opportunity, made by its own staff or reported to it by other parties. The latter are mostly backed by photographs or else, are indisputably accredited through careful interrogation by IMMRAC experts in real time and/or soon after the sighting, aided by a pictorial guide. Some records had estimates, minimums, or ranges for group sizes - these were converted to numbers, minimum + 1, or the median number (rounded down), respectively, for the number of animals observed.