New record of the humpback whale in the Adriatic Sea in 2009

Tilen Genov, Morigenos - marine mammal research & conservation society, Slovenia

This dataset represents a record of the humpback whale (Megaptera novaeangliae) in Slovenian territorial waters (north Adriatic Sea) during February, March and April 2009. This is the first confirmed and documented record of this species for Slovenia and the Gulf of Trieste, the second for the Adriatic Sea and the 14th for the Mediterranean Sea. The whale was observed from the coast and from a small inflatable boat. Its dorsal fin, tail fluke and other body parts were photographed for the purposes of photo-identification and dive times were recorded. A biospy sample was also obtained. The animal was estimated to be a sub-adult or a young adult, about 10-12 m long, apparently in good body condition. Photo-identification matching with the North Atlantic Humpback Whale Catalog did not reveal any matches and the animal was subsequently included in the catalog.



Research was conducted under the scientific permit of the Slovenian Environmental Agency, number 35601-29/2009-4.

Morigenos is an independent and non-profit, scientific non-governmental organization that aims to combine scientific research, monitoring, education, public awareness, capacity building and management, to achieve effective conservation of the marine environment and biodiversity.


The central activity of Morigenos is the Slovenian Dolphin Project, a long-term research, monitoring and conservation programme, focusing on bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) in Slovenian and adjacent waters in the northern Adriatic Sea. Research activities focus on dolphin distribution, abundance, social structure, habitat use, feeding habits, fishery interactions and tourism impact through dedicated boat surveys, land-based watches and theodolite tracking, photo-identification and mark-recapture techniques, behavioural observations and passive acoustic monitoring.


Other activities include research on loggerhead sea turtles (Caretta caretta), education, public awareness and capacity building.


Further information can be found at www.morigenos.org.

The whale stayed in the area for 2 months and was repeatedly observed and recorded during the period. This dataset contains only one record from the observations.

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.
Only minimum required attributes are visible and downloadable online. Other attributes may be obtained upon provider's permission.

Attributes in dataset

Attribute (table column)	Description
oid	Unique ID number (generated by SEAMAP)
row_id	Row ID
latitude	Latitude in decimal degrees
longitude	Longitude in decimal degrees
obs_date	date of observation. The day part is masked, replaced with 01.
sp_obs	Species name
sp_tsn	ITIS taxonomic serial number. This field added by OBIS-SEAMAP
obs_count	animal count
data_owner	Data owner
org	Organization
geom	definition not provided