Ecology, Environment and Conservation Paper

ANALYSIS OF OCEANOGRAPHIC VARIABLES ON THE APPEARANCE OF CETACEANS IN THE PANTAR STRAIT – ALOR, INDONESIA

Jahved F. Maro, Agus Hartoko, Sutrisno Anggoro, Max R. Muskananfola and Veryl Hasan

Abstract

The aim of this research is to see the appearance of cetaceans in the waters of Pantar Strait and the surrounding sea in Alor Regency, East Nusa Tenggara Province, Indonesia so that the database is available to be managed sustainably and to protect cetacean species. The research method used is field survey method by following the transect line in a zigzag manner, observed and recorded all the appearance of cetaceans and analyzed oceanographic variables such as sea surface temperature, chlorophyll-a, current velocity and the waters depth for each appearance of cetaceans. The research results were found average of sea surface temperatures using MODIS data in 2020 ranging from 28.0-31.0 oC, content of Chlorophyll-a ranges from 0.2-0.8 mm/m3 with the depth of General Bathymetric Chart of the Oceans data ranging from 20 meters - 50 meters and the current velocity of sea surface ranges from 0.2-0.9 m/s.