Accurate taxonomy is fundamental to the conservation efforts on marine mammals, which are listed in Schedule I of the Indian Wild Life Act 1972. It is still unclear as to how many species of Cetaceans exist in the Indian seas. The lack of adequate field keys and a reliable inventory has resulted in several cases of misidentification when relied exclusively on conventional morphology-based taxonomy. DNA Sequence analysis has become a powerful tool for conservation.
This book provides morphological field keys of the species of marine mammals reported from India along with a molecular taxonomic approach to aid the identification of the species. It also provides the technique for PCR-Based gender identification.