Ecological Research
at KOL, our ecological research is centred around developing a more clear understanding of the marine mammals that call the Cambodian coastline home.
since 2024, our team and the local communities have worked hard to collect as much baseline data as possible, contributing to our longterm dataset to assess population trends of our focal species.
how do we survey?
Boat-based surveys
KOL uses distance sampling and photo-ID techniques to collect data that supports many different coastal-wide projects, but primarily our long-term study to assess population trends of our focal species in Kampot.
We collaborate with local fishing communities in Kampot Province, meaning that we have the best boat captains for the job.
land-based surveys
We also conduct surveys from land-based stations in Kampot, surveying the area of water that is in front of us in the early morning.
This allows us to assess the distribution, seasonality and the behaviours of our focal species in Kampot, Cambodia. Surveying from land can give us information on how boating activity effects the movements of our focal species.
what happens to our data?
Currently, we have 2 years worth of boat-based & land-based abundance and distribution data!
Using this, members of our team as well as research fellows from around the world are able to collaborate on projects to investigate gaps in knowledge and contribute to a greater understanding of our focal species.
Have a read of some projects below:
PhD ON 'POPULATION ECOLOGY AND CONSERVATION OF MARINE MAMMALS IN cAMBODIA'
Principal Investigator: Sarah Tubbs
Supervisors: Per Berggren, phil hammond, Roy Sanderson, Fabrice Stephenson, Sarah Coulthard.
One of our two Co-Founders, Sarah Tubbs, is currently conducting her PhD at Newcastle University. Sarah's PhD is being conducted in collaboration with Khmer Ocean Life.
The survey team
Indo-Pacific Humpback Dolphin (Sousa chinensis) juveniles.
A beautiful beaufort 0 for our survey team
The survey team
Project summary
Over the past four years at Newcastle University, Sarah has been working to assess the status of marine mammals in Cambodia.
Cambodia's coastal waters support four marine mammal species that are gloablly considered threatened with extinction on the IUCN Red List: the Irrawaddy dolphin, Indo-Pacific humpback dolphin, Indo-Pacific finless porpoise and dugong.
Sarah's thesis brings together a range of studies designed to improve our understanding of the status of these species in Cambodia, including estimating fisheries bycatch, population abundance and distribution, evaluating extinction risk, and estimating bycatch limits where sufficient data were available. Together, these findings provide evidence to support conservation planning and fisheries management in Cambodia.