Cetacean observations in the Indian Ocean Sanctuary and the South China Sea, Mauritius to the Philippines, April 1999

Marijke de Boer

Information on cetaceans in the Indian Ocean Sanctuary and the South China Sea is summarized from a cruise carried out from 29 March to 17 April 1999. Ten species were positively identified: finless porpoise, pantropical spotted dolphin, spinner dolphin, sperm whale, melon-headed whale, pygmy killer whale, false killer whale, Cuvier’s beaked whale, Bryde’s whale and fin whale. Spotted dolphins, melon-headed and pygmy killer whales were sighted around the Island of Borneo and sightings of fin whales and a sperm whale west of the Balabac Strait suggest a possible migration route of these species between the South China Sea and the Sulu Sea. This is the first record
of fin whales in the South China Sea.

This note details cetacean observations made during a cruise from Mauritius to the Philippines in April (ca 4,520 nautical miles).

Time was not provided, so it was filled with "00:00:00."

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	Observed date
sp_obs	Species observed
sp_tsn	Species ITIS TSN
obs_count	Observed count
latitude	Latitude of observation
longitude	Longitude of observation
obs_time	Observed time
notes	Details of the observed species (if calf or juvenile was observed)