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Cascadia Research Blue Whale Photo IDs for US West Coast, 1972-2004
Cascadia Research Collective
Dataset credit
Cascadia Research
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Contacts
| Role | Name | Organization | |
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| Primary contact |
John Calambokidis |
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| Data entry |
Ei Fujioka |
Duke University |
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Citation
Calambokidis, J. 2013. Cascadia Research Blue Whale Photo IDs for US West Coast, 1972-2004. Version 1.7.1. Dataset published in OBIS-SEAMAP. https://doi.org/10.82144/0cbd04d0. Halpin, P.N., A.J. Read, E. Fujioka, B.D. Best, B. Donnelly, L.J. Hazen, C. Kot, K. Urian, E. LaBrecque, A. Dimatteo, J. Cleary, C. Good, L.B. Crowder, and K.D. Hyrenbach. 2009. OBIS-SEAMAP: The world data center for marine mammal, sea bird, and sea turtle distributions. Oceanography. 22(2):104-115.
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Abstract
This dataset consists of 6,560 sighting records, including at least 1,803 uniquely identified blue whales. These were collected by Cascadia Research and collaborators from the eastern North Pacific from 1975 through 2004 (data collection is continuing). The primary extent of this dataset includes waters off California, Oregon, and Washington from 1986 to 2004, which accounts for over 6,000 of the records. Additional sighting records are from other regions of the North Pacific including the Eastern Tropical Pacific, British Columbia, and Alaska. These data represent the most extensive database of blue whale sightings available from the waters off the western United States and have provided the primary information available on movements and abundance of eastern North Pacific blue whales. Effort was not evenly distributed throughout the region so sighting locations are biased towards areas of highest effort. ID field links resightings of the same individual.
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Purpose
Data were gathered to document movements, population structure and abundance of blue whales in the eastern North Pacific (see Calambokidis and Barlow 2004, Calambokidis and Steiger 1997, Calambokidis et al. 1990).
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Supplemental information
Updated on March 30, 2006, expanding the dataset up to 2004.
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Change History
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.
- 1.7.1 (2025-09-25) - Corrective - geographicCoverage in EML and spatialCoverage in JSON-LD are updated to better represent the bounding box that crosses the anti-meridian.
- 1.7.0 (2021-04-24) - Update - Published after organisation is set and ready to be registered into GBIF.
- 1.6.0 (2017-08-03) - Update - IPT server updated to v2.3.4.
- 1.2.0 (2016-08-31) - Update - Data and metadata update.
- 1.0.1 (2006-03-20) - Update - Expanding the dataset up to 2004.
- 1.0.0 (2006-07-10) - Initial
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References
Calambokidis, J. and G.H. Steiger. 1997. Blue Whales. Worldlife Series Library. Voyager Press, MN. 72 pp. Calambokidis, J., G.H. Steiger, J.C. Cubbage, K.C. Balcomb, C. Ewald, S. Kruse, R. Wells, and R. Sears. 1990. Sightings and movements of blue whales off central California 1986-88 from photo-identification of individuals. Report of the International Whaling Commission. Special Issue 12:342-348.
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Attributes
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 |
|---|
| series | |
| researchgr | |
| loccode | |
| region | |
| sub_area | |
| locality | |
| date | Observed date |
| time | Observed time |
| lat_s | |
| lon_s | |
| lat | Latitude of observation |
| long | Longitude of observation |
| positionty | |
| groupsize | |
| numcalves | |
| numids | |
| groupbeh | |
| photograph | |
| quall | |
| qualr | |
| qualf | |
| species | Species observed |
| tsn | ITIS Taxonomic Serial Number added by OBIS-SEAMAP |
| geom | |
| oid | Unique ID number (generated by OBIS-SEAMAP) |
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| OBIS-SEAMAP ID | 99 |
| DOI | 10.82144/0cbd04d0 |
| Version | 1.7.1 |
| Seabirds | 0 |
| Marine mammals | 6,535 |
| Sea turtles | 0 |
| Rays and sharks | 0 |
| Other species | 0 |
| Non spatial | 25 |
| Non species | 0 |
| Total | 6,560 |
| Date, Begin | 1975-12-01 |
| Date, End | 2004-11-02 |
| Temporal prec. | 111111 |
| Latitude | -14.43 - 59.28 |
| Longitude | 168.94 - 279.39 |
| Coord. prec. | 2 decimal digits |
| Platform | Boat |
| Data type | Animal sighting |
| Effort | N/A |
| Registered | 2006-07-10 |
| Updated | 2025-09-25 |
| Status | Published |
Sharing policy |
CC-BY-NC (Minimum) |
| Shared with |
GBIF
OBIS |
| Metadata in static HTML / FGDC / EML |
| See download history / statistics |
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