Scientific research conducted in the 1990s by a leading South African cetacean scientist revealed that approximately 20 000 Indo-Pacific Bottlenose Dolphins, were making use of Algoa Bay. In a recent study of the population of Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphins in Algoa Bay, a photographic data set of over 10 000 ID-images were used to enabled researchers to accurately identify 1 569 individual dolphins by distinctive markings, such as deep notches, on the edges of their dorsal fins. Subsequently, photo-identification data collected on 54 occasions during a 3-yr-study period could be used in a ‘mark-recapture’ statistical analysis. This estimated a population of 28 482 individuals. The research concluded that Algoa Bay had the “LARGEST POPULATION ESTIMATE TO DATE FOR THIS SPECIES ALONG THE SOUTH AFRICAN COAST, which suggested that the bottlenose dolphins inhabiting the Algoa Bay region represent part of a substantially larger population that ranges along a considerable length of the South African coast”. Nowhere else in the world has a population of Indo-Pacific Bottlenose Dolphins this size been identified. This has lead to Port Elizabeth's Algoa Bay being declared the Bottlenose Dolphin Capital of the World.
