OceanCare cetacean sightings 2001-2011
OceanCare

Sylvia Frey, OceanCare

This dataset comprises the work carried out by OceanCare in the Provencal waters in the Mediterranean Sea between 2001 and 2011. The project is organized as a long-term monitoring project in order to survey cetacean population in these waters which belong to the Pelagos Marine Mammal Sanctuary. Cetacean spatial and temporal distribution is studied using boat-based surveys. A total of 390 sightings of identified cetacean species were recorded. Observed species and overall respective relative sighting frequencies were as follows: Striped dolphin (Stenella coeruleoalba; 73.8%), sperm whale (Physeter macrocephalus; 10.5%), fin whale (Balaenoptera physalus; 5.1%), bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus; 2.9%), long finned pilot whale (Globicephala melas; 2.6%), short-beaked common dolphin (Delphinus delphis; 2.8%), Risso's dolphin (Grampus griseus; 2.3%). Currently, analysis of the long-term data set as well as respective publication is in progress.

OceanCare is a non-profit and non-governmental organization founded in 1989 in Switzerland. The organization is dedicated to the protection of marine mammals and the conservation of the marine environment. The association works at national and international level in the areas of whaling, industrial fishing, environmental changes, seal hunting, dolphin captivity, and cetacean research.

OceanCare has the Special Consultative Status with the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations and is a partner of the UNEP/CMS Agreement on the Conservation of Cetaceans in the Black Sea, Mediterranean Sea and Contiguous Atlantic Area (ACCOBAMS) and a member of the Cetacean Alliance, a not-for-profit network of nine non-governmental organizations committed to preserving marine biodiversity and reducing human impact on cetacean populations. With this cetacean monitoring project OceanCare provides long-term data on cetacean abundance in parts of the Pelagos Marine Mammal Sanctuary in the Mediterranean Sea.

12/13/2011: Dataset was updated with 2011 data.

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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.

This section explains attributes included in the original dataset. OBIS-SEAMAP restricts the attributes available to the public to date/time, lat/lon and species names/counts only. Should you need other attributes described here, you are encouraged to contact the data provider.

Attributes in dataset provided

Attribute (table column)	Description
oid	Unique ID number (generated by SEAMAP)
sp_obs	Species name by provider
sp_tsn	ITIS taxonomic serial number. This field added by OBIS-SEAMAP
obs_count	Group size
longitude	Longitude in decimal degrees
latitude	Latitude in decimal degrees
obs_time	time of observation
data_owner	Data owner