| Summary: | Oregon State University (OSU) conducted a four-year (2014, 2015, 2016, and 2017) tagging and tracking study on eastern North Pacific blue whales (Balaenoptera musculus) and fin whales (Balaenoptera physalus). Tagging occurred off the coast of southern and central California in the months from July to September of each year. In addition, one fin whale was tagged off Oregon in September 2018. Three types of Argos (satellite-monitored) tags were used: Location-Only (LO) tags, providing long-term tracking information; Dive-Monitoring (DM) tags, providing intermediate- to long-duration tracking and dive behavior (duration, depth, number of feeding lunges per dive); and pop-off Advanced Dive Behavior (ADB) tags, providing intermediate-duration, fine-scale dive profile information upon tag recovery and Global Positioning System (GPS)-quality locations. Twenty-four blue whales (20 LO tags, 4 ADB tags) and six fin whales (3 LO, 3 ADB) were tagged in 2014. Twenty-two blue whales (18 LO, 4 ADB), and 11 fin whales (9 LO, 2 ADB) were tagged in 2015. Nineteen blue whales (11 LO, 8 DM) and 14 fin whales (5 LO, 9 DM) were tagged in 2016. Twenty-seven blue whales (13 LO, 14 DM) and one fin whale (1 LO) were tagged in 2017. In addition, one blue-fin whale hybrid (1 LO) and one Bryde’s whale (Balaenoptera edeni brydei; 1 LO) were tagged in 2015. Finally, one fin whale (1 LO) was tagged off Oregon in 2018 as part of this project. Locations were received from all but four tags (two blue whales [1 LO tag and 1 DM tag] and two fin whales [1 LO tag and 1 DM tag]), with tracking periods ranging from 0.6 to 283.8 d. Average tracking duration for non-ADB tags was 73.4 d (sd = 58.4 d) for blue whales and 55.4 d (sd = 52.9 d) for fin whales. Average tracking duration for ADB tags was 23.0 d (sd = 4.5 d) for blue whales and 12.3 d (sd = 4.4 d) for fin whales, for 2014 and 2015 combined (the two years in which ADB tags were used). An Excel file is provided containing deployment summary information for all 127 tags. For the 123 tags that transmitted locations, a .csv file is provided with Argos locations and error estimate parameters. Additionally, for the 13 ADB tags, a .csv file is provided with FastLoc GPS locations and error estimate parameters. For the 11 ADB tags that were recovered, individual 1-Hz data archives with sensor data (depth, temperature, accelerometer, and magnetometer) are provided as .csv files. For the two unrecovered ADB tags, Argos-transmitted dive summary and depth histogram data are provided as a .csv file. Finally, temperature histogram data are provided for the 81 LO tags that transmitted, and dive/lunge summary data are provided for the 29 DM tags that transmitted as .csv files.
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