(Table 1) Beluga (Delphinapterus leucas) density and abundance, and pod characteristics in west Greenland waters ...

An aerial survey was conducted to estimate the abundance of belugas (Delphinapterus leucas) on their wintering ground in West Greenland in March-April 2006 and 2008. The survey was conducted as a double platform aerial line transect survey, and sampled approximately 17% of the total survey area of c...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Heide-Jørgensen, Mads Peter, Laidre, Kristin L, Borchers, David, Marques, Tiago A, Stern, H, Simon, M
Format: Dataset
Language:English
Published: PANGAEA 2010
Subjects:
Area/locality
Area
Sampling date
DATE/TIME
Date/time end
Number
Length of transect
Number of observations
Ratio
Delphinapterus leucas, density of pods
Coefficient
Delphinapterus leucas
Delphinapterus leucas, density
Delphinapterus leucas, number of pods
Delphinapterus leucas, pod size
Whale watching
International Polar Year 2007-2008 IPY
Baffin Bay
Baffin
Beluga
Beluga*
Greenland
International Polar Year
IPY
Sea ice
Online Access:https://dx.doi.org/10.1594/pangaea.811008
https://doi.pangaea.de/10.1594/PANGAEA.811008
Description
Summary:An aerial survey was conducted to estimate the abundance of belugas (Delphinapterus leucas) on their wintering ground in West Greenland in March-April 2006 and 2008. The survey was conducted as a double platform aerial line transect survey, and sampled approximately 17% of the total survey area of ca. 125 000 km**2. The abundance of belugas was 10 595 (95% confidence interval 4904-24 650). The largest abundance was found at the northern part of Store Hellefiske Bank, at the eastern edge of the Baffin Bay pack ice, a pattern similar to that found in eight systematic surveys conducted since 1981. A clear relationship between decreasing sea-ice cover and increasing offshore distance of beluga sightings was established from all previous surveys, suggesting that belugas expand their distribution westward as new areas on the banks of West Greenland open up earlier in spring with reduced sea-ice coverage or early annual ice recession. This is in contrast to the relatively confined distribution of belugas near the ... : The total abundance of belugas is corrected for an availability bias of 0.43 (coefficient of variation (CV) = 0.09). Data extracted in the frame of a joint ICSTI/PANGAEA IPY effort, see http://doi.pangaea.de/10.1594/PANGAEA.150150 ...

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