https://doi.org/10.82144/58030104 https://seamap.env.duke.edu/dataset/776 https://www.gbif.org/dataset/bbf53f93-852f-466d-88ad-b9e1327f9215 https://obis.org/dataset/e23bf817-593d-40d8-a7a3-6823d741d50b Caterina Lanfredi Tethys Research Institute Primary contact caterina.lanfredi@polimi.it Giuseppe Notarbartolo di Sciara Tethys Research Institute Primary contact tethys@tethys.org www.tethys.org OBIS-SEAMAP Marine Geospatial Ecology Lab, Duke University

A328 LSRC building Durham NC 27708 US

seamap-contact@duke.edu https://seamap.env.duke.edu OBIS-SEAMAP Marine Geospatial Ecology Lab, Duke University

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seamap-contact@duke.edu https://seamap.env.duke.edu distributor Caterina Lanfredi Tethys Research Institute Primary contact caterina.lanfredi@polimi.it owner Giuseppe Notarbartolo di Sciara Tethys Research Institute Primary contact tethys@tethys.org www.tethys.org owner ACCOBAMS and WDCS The Agreement on the Conservation of Cetaceans of the Black Sea, Mediterranean Sea and contiguous Atlantic Area (ACCOBAMS) and Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society (WDCS) http://www.accobams.org/ originator 2025-07-31 eng Original provider: Tethys Research Institute Dataset credits: Tethys Research Institute; Institute for Environmental Protection and Research - ISPRA Abstract: Monitoring abundance and distribution is essential in any conservation strategy, but is often ignored in many regions, including much of the Mediterranean. It is a priority of the Italian Ministry of the Environment, who funded a series of aerial surveys around Italy, to provide significant baseline information on cetaceans distribution and abundance. The covered areas included the Pelagos Sanctuary, the Central Tyrrhenian, the Corsica and Sardinia Seas, and the Ionian Sea and the Gulf of Taranto. Numbers of animals within the Sanctuary are significantly higher in summer, when human activities and thus potential population level impacts are highest. A crude comparison with data from past shipboard surveys suggests an appreciable decrease in fin whale density in the Pelagos Sanctuary area over the last decade, reiterating the need for a major synoptic basinwide survey, as well as regular monitoring surveys. The low CVs and CIs reconfirm the effectiveness of aerial surveys in estimating abundance of certain cetacean species in suitable areas/circumstances and may provide a model for other areas of the Mediterranean. These surveys provide baseline data to develop efficient long-term systematic monitoring programmes, as required by a number of national and international frameworks. The collected data may also be crucial in assessing whether ship strikes, one of the main causes of death for fin whales in the Mediterranean, are affecting the Mediterranean population. Occurrence GBIF Dataset Type Vocabulary: http://rs.gbif.org/vocabulary/gbif/dataset_type.xml Observation GBIF Dataset Subtype Vocabulary: http://rs.gbif.org/vocabulary/gbif/dataset_subtype.xml Marine Biology Visual sighting Aircraft Sightings N/A Effort data are from 2009 only. When time and observed counts were not available, "00:00:00" and "1" was filled in, respectively. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC-BY-NC) 4.0 License. https://seamap.env.duke.edu/dataset/776 Oceans 5.881671 19.024738 44.293621 36.043812 2009-01-12 2011-01-19 Scientific names are based on the Integrated Taxonomic Information System (ITIS). species Balaenoptera physalus Fin whale order Cetacea Cetaceans family Delphinidae Dolphins species Globicephala melas Long-finned pilot whale species Grampus griseus Risso's dolphin species Physeter macrocephalus Sperm whale species Stenella coeruleoalba Striped dolphin species Tursiops truncatus Common bottlenose dolphin species Ziphius cavirostris Cuvier's beaked whale notPlanned Caterina Lanfredi Tethys Research Institute Primary contact caterina.lanfredi@polimi.it Giuseppe Notarbartolo di Sciara Tethys Research Institute Primary contact tethys@tethys.org www.tethys.org NA NA NA Caterina Lanfredi owner Giuseppe Notarbartolo di Sciara owner NA zd_776 2025-07-31T15:33:20-04:00 dataset Lanfredi, C. and G. Notarbartolo di Sciara. 2011. Tethys Research Institute aerial survey cetacean sightings 2009-2011. Version 1.0.0. Dataset published in OBIS-SEAMAP. https://doi.org/10.82144/58030104. OBIS-SEAMAP Dataset Page UTF-8 Interactive map https://seamap.env.duke.edu/dataset/776 FGDC Metadata UTF-8 XML https://seamap.env.duke.edu/dataset/776/fgdc EML Metadata UTF-8 XML https://seamap.env.duke.edu/dataset/776/eml OBIS-SEAMAP zd_776 zd_776 Panigada, S., Lauriano, G., Burt, L., Pierantonio, N., Donovan, G. 2011. Monitoring winter and summer abundance of cetaceans in the Pelagos Sanctuary (Northwestern Mediterranean Sea) through aerial surveys. PLoS ONE 6(7): e22878: doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0022878.