Dear MARMAM community, My co-authors and I are pleased to share our new publication, in which we report a rare observation of a harbor porpoise calf swimming in echelon position alongside an adult common dolphin in the southern Black Sea. Özsandıkçı, U., Tonay, A.M., Şahin, F. (2026). Rare Interspecific Interaction Between Common Dolphin (*Delphinus delphis*) and Harbor Porpoise (*Phocoena phocoena*) Calf in the Southern Black Sea. Regional Studies in Marine Science, Article 105371. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rsma.2026.105371 The article is not open access, but it can be read and downloaded for free for the next 50 days at this link: https://authors.elsevier.com/a/1netL8MvAu7Uds ABSTRACT Harbor porpoises (*Phocoena phocoena*) are often faced with aggressive interactions with other cetacean species, especially delphinids, but there are very few cases of affiliative interactions. In this study, we report an opportunistic observation of a harbor porpoise calf interacting with a group of adult common dolphins (*Delphinus delphis*) during a routine vessel-based survey in the southeastern Black Sea in the summer of 2025. The observation involves the calf swimming with an adult common dolphin in an echelon position, typically seen in mother-calf pairs, and attempting to maintain this position. Although this observation may represent a rare non-agonistic interspecific association, its short duration prevents firm conclusions about the nature of the interaction. We discuss possible affiliative and agonistic interpretations and place the observation within the broader ecological context of harbor porpoise conservation in the Black Sea. Best wishes, Uğur Özsandıkçı Faculty of Fisheries, Sinop University / Turkish Marine Research Foundation (TUDAV)
-- Uğur ÖZSANDIKÇI, PhD Researcher Faculty of Fisheries Sinop University [email protected] Akliman mevkii, Abalı Köyü, 57000, Sinop/TÜRKİYE <https://goo.gl/maps/2CVBBvKEDL6sQAx96> sufak.sinop.edu.tr <https://sufak.sinop.edu.tr/home/> <https://twitter.com/OzsandikciUgur> <https://www.instagram.com/ozsandikciugur/> The content of this email is confidential and intended for the recipient specified in message only. It is strictly forbidden to share any part of this message with any third party, without a written consent of the sender. If you received this message by mistake, please reply to this message and follow with its deletion, so that we can ensure such a mistake does not occur in the future.
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