Mo Ganji: Atlantic Humpback Dolphin | Atlantischer Buckeldelfin | Sousa teuszii | No. 020/250 from work group 8/99

Atlantic Humpback Dolphin | Atlantischer Buckeldelfin | Sousa teuszii

Mo Ganji’s single line approaches the Atlantic humpback dolphin as a search for essential form. The line reduces the animal to a quiet contour — a way of acknowledging its presence without claiming to capture its full complexity. In Ganji’s sense, the stripped-down outline invites viewers to encounter a being as an idea and as a reality at once, where essence is revealed by leaving out the non-essential.

Sousa teuszii is listed as Critically Endangered (CR) on the IUCN Red List. This coastal dolphin inhabits shallow waters along the West African coast, from Western Sahara to Angola — a narrow band of habitat that also exposes it to intense human pressures. Population estimates are uncertain but believed to be extremely low, fragmented into small, isolated groups.

The primary threats include accidental entanglement in fishing gear (especially gillnets), targeted or opportunistic hunting, coastal development, vessel traffic, and pervasive noise pollution in nearshore waters. Because the species favors very shallow, near-coastal habitats, its exposure to disturbance is much higher than that of offshore dolphins. Habitat loss driven by port expansion, pollution and declining fish stocks further reduces its chances of recovery.

Ganji’s minimal stroke does not speak these facts directly; instead, it carves out a space in which the dolphin’s essential shape can be considered without distraction. The reduced form becomes a quiet reminder that some species live at the thin boundary between presence and disappearance — and that seeing them clearly may begin with learning to see their simplest outline.