Land-based observations of cetaceans in the waters of Beringa Island in 2007-2009

Russian Cetacean Habitat Project

Far East Russia Orca Project

Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society

These data were collected via land-based observations from Poludennaya Bay, Beringa Island (Commander Islands) in May-June 2007, May-July 2008 and August-September 2009. The observation point was located on a 40 m cliff. Bearing and distance to the observed whales were defined by binoculars with a compass and range-finding reticle. Observations were conducted during all daylight hours, if visibility was more than 5 km. We made one 15 minute scan every half hour and noted all cetaceans observed during the scan. Consequently, in many cases we could note the same animal several times in different scans. Observed species include killer whale, minke whale, humpback whale, fin whale, sei whale, sperm whale, Baird’s beaked whale, harbor porpoise and Dall’s porpoise.

The purpose of this study is to identify critical habitats for various cetacean species in the waters of the Russian Far East.

The original did not include the second part of the time.

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)
obs_date	date of observation
obs_time	time of observation
species	Species name recorded by provider
sp_tsn	ITIS taxonomic serial number. This field added by OBIS-SEAMAP
obs_count	animal count
latitude	Latitude in decimal degrees
longitude	Longitude in decimal degrees.