SUMMARY

• Main Authors: Brenda K. Rone, Annie B. Douglas, Phil Clapham, Anthony Martinez, Laura J. Morse, Re N. Zerbini, John Calambokidis
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: 2009
• Subjects: Gulf of Alaska; Pacific; Kodiak; Alaska
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.528.1268; http://www.cascadiaresearch.org/reports/goa_april_2009_final_report-resubmit.pdf

Little is known about the occurrence of cetaceans found in offshore waters in the Gulf of Alaska; however, whaling records and a few recent surveys have shown this area to be important habitat. The United States Navy maintains a maritime training area in the central Gulf of Alaska, east of Kodiak Island, and has requested additional information on marine mammal presence and use of this area. To determine the occurrence and distribution of marine mammals in and around the Navy training area, a line-transect visual and acoustic survey was conducted 10-20 April 2009 from the NOAA R/V Oscar Dyson. The primary survey area encompassed nearshore, shelf and offshore pelagic waters of the central Gulf of Alaska. Survey lines were designed to provide equal coverage of the nearshore and offshore habitat. During this project, the visual survey covered a total of 760 kilometers (410 nautical miles) on-effort while transit and fog effort legs accounted for 553 km (298 nm). There were a total of 96 sightings (453 individuals) of 11 confirmed marine mammal species; these included fin, humpback, gray, and minke whales as well as killer whales, Dall’s and harbor porpoise, Pacific white-sided dolphins and Steller sea lions, harbor seals and sea otters. Additionally, there were 36 sightings (46 individuals) of unidentified large whales, dolphins and pinnipeds.