Whale sightings during POLARSTERN cruise ANT-XXVIII/4 ...

• Main Author: Burkhardt, Elke
• Format: Dataset
• Language: English
• Published: PANGAEA 2013
• Subjects: Cetacean sightings; WALOG; DATE/TIME; LATITUDE; LONGITUDE; Whale species; Certainty of identification; Individuals; Underway cruise track measurements; Visual observation; ANT-XXVIII/4; Polarstern; Marine Mammal Perimeter Surveillance from RV Polarstern MAPS; Antarc*; Antarctic; Antarctic Minke whale; Balaenoptera bonaerensis; Balaenoptera physalus; baleen whales; Elephant Island; Fin whale; Humpback Whale; Joinville Island; Killer Whale; Megaptera novaeangliae; minke whale; Orca; Orcinus orca; Scotia Sea; toothed whale; Killer whale
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.1594/pangaea.819863; https://doi.pangaea.de/10.1594/PANGAEA.819863

From 13 March to 09 April 2012 Germany conducted a fisheries survey on board RV Polarstern in the Scotia Sea (Elephant Island - South Shetland Island - Joinville Island area) under the auspices of CCAMLR. During this expedition, ANT-XXVIII/4, an opportunistic marine mammal survey was carried out. Data were collected for 26 days along the externally preset cruise track, resulting in 295 hrs on effort. Within the study area 248 sightings were collected, including three different species of baleen whales (fin whale (Balaenoptera physalus), humpback whale (Megaptera novaeangliae), and Antarctic minke whale (Balaenoptera bonaerensis) and one toothed whale species, killer whale (Orcinus orca). More than 62% of the sightings recorded were fin whales (155 sightings) which were mainly related to the Elephant Island area (116 sightings). Usual group sizes of the total fin whale sightings ranged from one to five individuals, also including young animals associated with adults during some encounters. Larger groups of ... : Date/Time is given in UTC. Certainty of identification: definite if observer clearly identified the species. The number of individuals is binned according to the options given in the data acquisition software: 1, 2, 3, less equal 5, less equal 10, greater than 10, greater than 20. More precise values may exist, due to observer comments. See doi:10.1594/PANGAEA.784455 and doi:10.1594/PANGAEA.784460 for weather condition and doi:10.1594/PANGAEA.802809 for the sea surface oceanography. ...