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  <front>
    <journal-meta>
      <journal-id journal-id-type="publisher-id">102</journal-id>
      <journal-id journal-id-type="index">urn:lsid:arphahub.com:pub:73abe0ce-d97c-5d7c-bee5-b8e6e6fe6a17</journal-id>
      <journal-title-group>
        <journal-title xml:lang="en">ARPHA Preprints</journal-title>
        <abbrev-journal-title xml:lang="en">preprints</abbrev-journal-title>
      </journal-title-group>
      <publisher>
        <publisher-name>Pensoft Publishers</publisher-name>
      </publisher>
    </journal-meta>
    <article-meta>
      <article-id pub-id-type="doi">10.3897/arphapreprints.e75384</article-id>
      <article-id pub-id-type="publisher-id">75384</article-id>
      <article-categories>
        <subj-group subj-group-type="heading">
          <subject>Review Article</subject>
        </subj-group>
        <subj-group subj-group-type="biological_taxon">
          <subject>Animalia</subject>
        </subj-group>
        <subj-group subj-group-type="scientific_subject">
          <subject>Animal conservation</subject>
          <subject>Habitat</subject>
        </subj-group>
        <subj-group subj-group-type="geological_era">
          <subject>Paleozoic</subject>
        </subj-group>
        <subj-group subj-group-type="geographical_area">
          <subject>Asia</subject>
        </subj-group>
      </article-categories>
      <title-group>
        <article-title>Diversity and Conservation of Cetaceans in Pakistan</article-title>
      </title-group>
      <contrib-group content-type="authors">
        <contrib contrib-type="author" corresp="no">
          <name name-style="western">
            <surname>Ibrahim</surname>
            <given-names>Aamir</given-names>
          </name>
          <xref ref-type="aff" rid="A1">1</xref>
        </contrib>
        <contrib contrib-type="author" corresp="no">
          <name name-style="western">
            <surname>Chen</surname>
            <given-names>Bingyao</given-names>
          </name>
          <xref ref-type="aff" rid="A1">1</xref>
        </contrib>
        <contrib contrib-type="author" corresp="no">
          <name name-style="western">
            <surname>Ali</surname>
            <given-names>Imran</given-names>
          </name>
          <xref ref-type="aff" rid="A2">2</xref>
        </contrib>
        <contrib contrib-type="author" corresp="no">
          <name name-style="western">
            <surname>Ali</surname>
            <given-names>Hassan</given-names>
          </name>
          <xref ref-type="aff" rid="A3">3</xref>
        </contrib>
        <contrib contrib-type="author" corresp="no">
          <name name-style="western">
            <surname>Qadir</surname>
            <given-names>Abdul</given-names>
          </name>
          <xref ref-type="aff" rid="A4">4</xref>
        </contrib>
        <contrib contrib-type="author" corresp="yes">
          <name name-style="western">
            <surname>Yang</surname>
            <given-names>Guang</given-names>
          </name>
          <email xlink:type="simple">gyang@njnu.edu.cn</email>
          <xref ref-type="aff" rid="A1">1</xref>
        </contrib>
      </contrib-group>
      <aff id="A1">
        <label>1</label>
        <addr-line content-type="verbatim">Jiangsu Key Laboratory for Biodiversity and Biotechnology, College of Life Sciences, Nanjing Normal University, Nanjing, China</addr-line>
        <institution>Jiangsu Key Laboratory for Biodiversity and Biotechnology, College of Life Sciences, Nanjing Normal University</institution>
        <addr-line content-type="city">Nanjing</addr-line>
        <country>China</country>
      </aff>
      <aff id="A2">
        <label>2</label>
        <addr-line content-type="verbatim">Center for GIS, University of the Punjab, Lahore, Pakistan</addr-line>
        <institution>Center for GIS, University of the Punjab</institution>
        <addr-line content-type="city">Lahore</addr-line>
        <country>Pakistan</country>
      </aff>
      <aff id="A3">
        <label>3</label>
        <addr-line content-type="verbatim">Punjab Wildlife and Parks department, Punjab, Lahore, Pakistan</addr-line>
        <institution>Punjab Wildlife and Parks department, Punjab</institution>
        <addr-line content-type="city">Lahore</addr-line>
        <country>Pakistan</country>
      </aff>
      <aff id="A4">
        <label>4</label>
        <addr-line content-type="verbatim">College of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of the Punjab, Lahore, Pakistan</addr-line>
        <institution>College of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of the Punjab</institution>
        <addr-line content-type="city">Lahore</addr-line>
        <country>Pakistan</country>
      </aff>
      <author-notes>
        <fn fn-type="corresp">
          <p>Corresponding author: Guang Yang (<email xlink:type="simple">gyang@njnu.edu.cn</email>).</p>
        </fn>
        <fn fn-type="edited-by">
          <p>Academic editor: </p>
        </fn>
      </author-notes>
      <pub-date pub-type="collection">
        <year>2021</year>
      </pub-date>
      <pub-date pub-type="epub">
        <day>21</day>
        <month>09</month>
        <year>2021</year>
      </pub-date>
      <volume>1</volume>
      <uri content-type="arpha" xlink:href="http://openbiodiv.net/44233927-2FAF-57CD-961A-E382D4E60851">44233927-2FAF-57CD-961A-E382D4E60851</uri>
      <history>
        <date date-type="received">
          <day>16</day>
          <month>09</month>
          <year>2021</year>
        </date>
        <date date-type="accepted">
          <day>16</day>
          <month>09</month>
          <year>2021</year>
        </date>
      </history>
      <permissions>
        <copyright-statement>Aamir Ibrahim, Bingyao Chen, Imran Ali, Hassan Ali, Abdul Qadir, Guang Yang</copyright-statement>
        <license license-type="creative-commons-attribution" xlink:href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/" xlink:type="simple">
          <license-p>This is an open access preprint distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.</license-p>
        </license>
      </permissions>
      <abstract>
        <label>Abstract</label>
        <p>Pakistan has total coastline of about 990 km, while diversity, distribution and abundance of cetaceans are not well understood. All historic and most recent information are based on opportunistic stranding or incidental bycatch in fishing nets, which has been a big obstacle in formulating any conservation strategy for cetaceans in Pakistan. Recent initiatives were taken and conducted surveys along the entire coastline. Although, some species have been identified well, however, still, lack of detail studies on population biology and ecology of these species. Many other species are still lack of the expertise for identification or they were misidentified. So far, a total of 18 cetacean species have been recorded in Pakistan, consisting of 3 endangered species namely blue whale (<italic>Balaenoptera musculus</italic>), Arabian sea humpback whale (<italic>Megaptera novaeangliae</italic>) and Indian Ocean humpback dolphin (<italic>Sousa plumbea</italic>), 2 vulnerable such as the sperm whale (<italic>Physeter macrocephalus</italic>) and Indo-Pacific finless porpoise (<italic>Neophocaena phocoenoid</italic>) and others 13 species are listed as data deficient. Future studies should be focused to systematic investigations on stock identification, distribution, and also evaluate the anthropogenic threats to the cetaceans. As the cetaceans has unique evolutionary history among mammals and top predator in the aquatic ecosystem. The national policies and legislations should be revised to declare them as protected species. More protected areas should be established in some important areas, such as Indus delta along the Sindh coastline to sustain the integrity of habitat and long-term conservation and management of cetaceans along the entire coastal area of Pakistan.</p>
      </abstract>
    </article-meta>
  </front>
</article>
