Allied Finback Whale Catalogue

College of the Atlantic, Allied Whale

The North Atlantic Finback Whale Catalogue (NAFWC) is a sightings based, life history dataset of individual finback whales, inhabiting the western North Atlantic Ocean. Established in 1986 as a collaborative repository for several independent collections of photographically-identified finback whales, the NAFWC is comprised of photographic sightings, referenced by a whale identifying number, and date and location of the sighting. Individual identifications are based on morphological variations in dorsal fin shape, body pigment and patterns of scarring which provide a matrix of characters on which to qualify the identification as outlined in Agler et al. (1992). The majority of Catalogue sightings are obtained from coastal waters of the Gulf of Maine, during summer months from 1978 to the present, aboard both opportunistic and directed survey vessels.

Reference: Agler, B.A., K.A. Robertson, D. DenDanto, S.K. Katona, J.M. Allen, S.E. Frohock, I.E. Seipt and R. Bowman. 1992. The use of photographic identification for studying individual fin whales (Balaenoptera physalus) in the Gulf of Maine. Rep. Int. Wal. Commn 42:711-722.

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The dataset has been updated over time as outlined below. Each entry includes the version number, release date, type of change, and a short description.

Overview

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
id
whale_no
yr_mo_dy
location
latitude_0
longitude_0
date	Observed date
lat	Latitude of observation
lon	Longitude of observation
species	Species observed
geom
oid	Unique ID number (generated by SEAMAP)