YoNAH Encounter
The Years of the North Atlantic Humpback whale

Peter Stevick, University of Southern Maine

The Years of the North Atlantic Humpback whale (YoNAH) is the broadest-ranging, most intensive study ever undertaken of a marine mammal species. Standardized sampling protocols were used in all areas to minimizes biases due to sampling. The YoNAH project collected photographs of individually distinctive natural markings, genetic samples and behaviour data on humpback whales in the North Atlantic Ocean. Field work began in January 1992 with a large-scale study of humpbacks in their principal West Indies breeding range at Silver Bank, Navidad Bank and Samana Bay, Dominican Republic; and Mona Passage, Puerto Rico. During summer, sampling was conducted in all the known major North Atlantic feeding grounds: the Gulf of Maine, Gulf of St. Lawrence, Newfoundland, Labrador, southwestern Greenland, Iceland, and Norway. In 1993 the same schedule of field work was repeated.

The YoNAH project is a unique research program utilizing photo-identification techniques and molecular genetics to conduct an intensive survey of the population ecology of humpack whales throughout their known North Atlantic range. This internationally collaborative project involves scientists from seven nations. YoNAH's vast database supports a wide range of scientific investigations and also provides reliable, detailed information on which to base management policy. Archives of photographs, tissue samples and data will provide a valuable legacy for future research.

Data collection and analyses were conducted by reserach groups familiar with the study sites and with a history in use of these techniques for the study of humpback whale ecology. Allied Whale is responsible for photographic analysis and for database management. All the 5,500 photographs have been compared to one another to identify re-sightings. The accompanying databases are receiving final corrections and revisions. There are five datasets from YoNAH, including this one. Behavior of whales were recorded in some surveys. Biopsy samples and photographs were taken if possible. Ships efforts and sightings of species other than humpback whales are recorded in the Effort dataset. Those datasets can be linked with LINKKEY field.

Nils Oien. 2003. Segregation of migration by feeding ground origin in North Atlantic humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae). Journal of Zoology, London. 259 (2003)

Overview

Attributes described below represent those in the original dataset provided by the provider.
Only minimum required attributes are visible and downlodable online. Other attributes may be obtained upon provider's permission unless otherwise noteded below.

Attributes in dataset provided

Attribute (table column)	Description
dataset
lineno
recno
date
vesselid
cruise
encounter
linkkey
group_
min
max
starttime
endtime
latdd
longdd
locsource
protocol
class
mc
certainty
was
becomes
notes
surveyarea
excluded
behavcount
photocount
biopsycnt
species
tsn
oid