NEFSC Survey 1998 1
NOAA Northeast Fisheries Science Center (NEFSC)

NOAA Northeast Fisheries Science Center (NEFSC)

The survey was performed on the R/V Abel-J from 6 July to 4 August 1998 (Leg I), and from 8 August to 6 September 1998 (Leg II) starting and ending in Woods Hole, Massachusetts. The study areas in Leg I and Leg II, respectively, were from Cape Cod. Massachusetts to Virginia, and from Cape Cod, Massachusetts to Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. Both study areas extended from the 100 m depth contour to the Gulf Stream.

Primary objectives of the survey were:
1) Estimate the abundance of strategic species of pelagic dolphins and whales, such as common, spotted, and bottlenose dolphins, and sperm, pilot, and beaked whales, and
2) Estimate the abundance of all other dolphins and whales detected in these waters.

Secondary objectives included:
1) Collect bongo, CTD, water depth and temperature data to correlate with the spatial distribution of the marine mammals,
2) Conduct marine mammal photographic and video identification studies, and
3) Collect biopsy samples.

In addition to the sighting data, effort data were recorded every half hour or whenever conditions changed. This dataset, therefore, should be used with the effort data.

N/A

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
cruise	Cruise ID
year	Year of observation
month	Month of observation
day	Day of observation
time	Time of observation
lat	Latitude of observation
long	Longitude of observation
species	Species observed
sizeb	Number of animals
transect
leg
blank
oid	Unique ID number (generated by SEAMAP)