BOEM Sperm Whale Seismic Study (SWSS) MPS sperm whale trackings 2004-2005

Texas A&M University
Oregon State University
Scripps Institution of Oceanography
Texas A&M University-Galveston
University of Colorado
University of Durham
University of Saint Andrews
University of South Florida
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution

Sperm Whale Seismic Study (SWSS) was a multi-institutional, interdisciplinary research project supported by the then Minerals Management Service (MMS; now Bureau of Ocean Energy Management - BOEM) under Cooperative Agreement 1435-01-02-CA-85186 for Cooperative Research on Sperm Whales and their Response to Seismic Exploration in the Gulf of Mexico through the Texas A&M Research Foundation.

The objectives of SWSS were to
(1) establish baseline information on the biology and behavior of sperm whales in the northern Gulf of Mexico,
(2) characterize sperm whale habitat use in the northern Gulf of Mexico, and
(3) determine possible changes in behavior of sperm whales when subjected to manmade noise, particularly from seismic airgun arrays used for offshore oil and gas exploration and geological monitoring.

N/A

[2016-08-15] Two rows had inaccurate date/time values (1899-12-30 12:44:00 and 1899-12-30 12:46:00). These were corrected with 7/27/2004 17:44:36 and 7/27/2004 17:50:46.

[2015-03-24] 22 records had the number of animals of zero. All but the one at 2005-06-26 23:04:18 is replaced with a blank, representing species presence only. The one at 2005-06-26 23:04:18 is removed as the notes for this record mentioned as such.

This dataset includes visual tracking data of sperm whales conducted in PHOTO-ID/Mesoscale Population Study Cruises 2004 and 2005.

Sightings of other cetaceans are found in BOEM Sperm Whale Seismic Study (SWSS) MPS cetacean sightings 2004-2005

Since the vessels often tracked the sighted sperm whales for further surveys, many sightings in this dataset represent the same animals.

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.
All attributes are included in the downloadable file (CSV or ESRI File Geodatabase) for "Complete Set of Dataset".

Attributes in dataset

Attribute (table column)	Description
oid	Unique ID number (generated by OBIS-SEAMAP)
index	Index of rows in the original data table
gpsindex	Foreign key to GPS data
gpstime	GPS Time
datetime	Date and time (local time zone)
num	definition not provided
whale_activity	Whale activity
sp_obs	Species name recorded
sp_tsn	Taxonomic Serial Number added by OBIS-SEAMAP
obs_count	Number of animals (adults + calves)
adults	Number of adults
calves	Number of calves
whaleheadingrel	whale heading
usedbearingtrue	Bearing
calcrangem	definition not provided
notes	Notes
ships_heading	Ship heading
link	definition not provided
linktr	definition not provided
linkhp	definition not provided
linkenc	definition not provided
latitude	Latitude in decimal degrees
longitude	Longitude in decimal degrees
totalwhales	Total number of whales (in 2005 only)
intermediate	Number of intermediate size whales (in 2005 only)
medmales	Number of med-size whales (in 2005 only)
bigmales	Number of big-size whales (in 2005 only)
numsucfemales	Number of suckling femal whales (in 2005 only)
numcal	Number of calves (in 2005 only)
numnocal	definition not provided
numnoscr	definition not provided
reason	Reason
nflukes	definition not provided
yesnolength	Indicate if the length of the animal was estimated (in 2005 only)
yesnobiopsy	Indicate if biospy sample was taken (in 2005 only)
yesnorecs	definition not provided
yesnophoto	Indicate if photos were taken (in 2005 only)
geom	Geometry field added by OBIS-SEAMAP