Antractic whale observation on a platform of opportunity abroad krill fishing vessel "Dalmor II", April - July 2011.

OBIS and OBIS Black Sea

Karina Vishnyakova, an international scientific observer, conducted cetacean observations from a platform of opportunity, abroad polish trawler Dalmor II that fished Antarctic krill, during a cruise from March to July 2011. Most of the fishing season the vessel was in the CCAMLR statistical area 48.2, to the north-east of the South Orkney Islands. Observations were conducted on the vessel deck or on the bridge. The following data were recorded: observation details, time, geographical coordinates, species and number of animals in a group (or minimum abundance estimate), distance from the vessel and behavioral specific details. Also the photo material was collected.

Over the observation period 50 sightings of at least 280 individuals were recorded. Vast majority of recorded sightings (90%) and individuals (at least 90%) were minke whales (Balaenoptera bonaerensis); humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) were recorded in 5 cases. The largest minke whale groups were recorded in first ten-day period of April. Whales in such groups demonstrated feeding behavior, actively fed on the high density krill aggregations. Probably such aggregations were later fished by vessels on those fishing grounds. Group size varied from 2-3 up to few tens individuals (in the mean 6 ± 9.23 (standard deviation), median 3 individuals). In first ten-day period of April average number of individuals in groups was 12 whales ( ± 15.75 (standard deviation), median 8 individuals). Frequency of occurrence did not correlated with the time of day. Distance to the animals also varied from few meters to 5-7 kilometers. However, direct interactions of whales with the vessel were never recorded.

By late April – early May, number of sightings sharply declined, they became sporadic. During that period fast migrations of small whale groups were recorded. Also minke whales demonstrated «nervous» behavior, coming to the surface frequently and moving fast and jerky.

Humpback whales were recorded in groups of 2-3 individuals at late April near the South Orkney Islands and early May near the South Shetland Islands.

N/A

This dataset was downloaded from OBIS (https://obis.org/). The records for only marine mammals, seabirds, sea turtles and rays and sharks were extracted. Records with no longitude/latitude or no date (eventDate) were excluded.
OBIS dataset page:
https://obis.org/dataset/e6513ed4-0c07-400c-8ec4-9b54b664cdb8
Data Provider's dataset page:
http://gp.sea.gov.ua:8082/ipt/resource?r=whale_observation_ccamlr_ukrsces

Overview

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 described below represent those in the original dataset provided by the provider.
All attributes are included in the downloadable file (CSV or ESRI File Geodatabase) for "Complete Set of Dataset".

Attributes in dataset

Attribute (table column)	Description
oid	Internal ID
id	Record ID
dataset_id	Dataset ID
scientificname	Scientific name
vernacularname	Vernacular name
aphiaid	Aphia ID
taxonrank	taxononic rank
individualcount	Group size / individual count
eventdate	Event date (precision varies)
eventtime	Event time
decimallatitude	Latitude in decimal degrees
decimallongitude	Longitude in decimal degrees
coordinateprecision	Coordinate precision
catalognumber	Catalog number
collectioncode	Collection code
occurrencestatus	Occurrence status
basisofrecord	Basis of record (HumanObservation / MachineObservation)
modified	Date/time the record was modified
node_id	Node ID
occurrenceid	Occurrence ID
occurrenceremarks	Occurrence remarks
eventid	Event ID
institutioncode	Institution code
lifestage	Life stage
sex	Gender of the animal if known
species	Species by provider
datasetid	Dataset ID by provider
country	Country
locality	Location of ocean
waterbody	Details of ocean
dropped	Flag indicating the record was dropped (always false)
absence	Flag indicating the record represents the absence of the species (always false)
marine	Flag indicating the record is for marine life (always true)