SWFSC Marine Mammal Survey, CLAWS 2015, Cruise 1648

NOAA Southwest Fisheries Science Center (SWFSC)

In 2015, NOAA Fisheries Southwest Fisheries Science Center (SWFSC) undertook a Collaborative Large Whale Survey (CLaWS) from 9 July through 9 November aboard NOAA Ship Reuben Lasker. The survey was a collaborative effort between SWFSC and NOAA Fisheries Alaska Fisheries Science Center.
The study was conducted in U.S. and Canadian waters of the eastern North Pacific (ENP) between the Aleutian Islands, Alaska, and San Diego, California (Fig. 1). The survey was separated into five legs, ranging from 15 to 25 days. The fourth leg of the survey occurred in Canadian Pacific coastal waters between 28 September and 22 October and was a collaborative effort with Dr. John Ford of the Cetacean Research Program, Pacific Biological Station, Fisheries and Oceans Canada.

CLAWS = Collaborative Large Whale Survey.
Objective: photo ID study of the Pacific Coast Feeding Group (PCFG) of gray whales (Eschrichtius robustus) between central California and Kodiak, Alaska.
Vessel: NOAA Ship Reuben Lasker.
Study area: U.S. and Canadian waters of the Eastern North Pacific (ENP) between the Aleutian Islands, Alaska, and San Diego, California.

SWFSC MMTD Cruise Number: 1648
Perpendicular distance will be released upon permission by the contributor. Please contact the contributor if needed.

Attribute descriptions for effort data:
dist: Length of the segment (km)
Mode: Effort mode type (C = closing mode; P = passing mode)

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)
event	S = marine mammal sighting; t = sea turtle sighting; p = pinniped sighting
datetime	Date and time of sighting (local time)
lat	Latitude (decimal degrees) of vessel when sighting was made
lon	Longitude (decimal degrees) of vessel when sighting was made
cruise	SWFSC Marine Mammal and Turtle Divison Cruise number
sightno	Sighting number (within Cruise)
nsp	Number of species observed in the sighting
mixed	TRUE for a multi-species sighting (nSp >= 2); FALSE otherwise (nSp = 1)
spcode	Species code
sp_tsn	Taxonomic Serial Number added by OBIS-SEAMAP
gsspbest	The mean of all observers
gssphigh	The mean of all observers
gssplow	The mean of all observers
perpdistkm	Perpendicular distance (km) to sighting from trackline; Available upon permission.
bft	Beaufort sea state, as assessed by looking upswell with the naked eye.
swellhght	Average swell height from trough to crest of typical swells (estimated in feet, by eye)
vis	A measure of air/atmospheric clarity
groupsize_sightno	Running count ID of all cetacean groups recorded (should be same as SightNo)
groupsize_count	Number of observers that provided a group size estimate (for calculating GsSpBest) for S events.
groupsize_count_obs	Number of unique observer codes per sighting for S events
geom	Geometry field added by OBIS-SEAMAP