PIFSC, Cetacean Survey, PICEAS 2011, Cruise 1108, NOAA Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center

Original provider: NOAA Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center (PIFSC) Dataset credits: NOAA Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center Abstract: The Pacific Islands Cetacean Ecosystem Assessment Survey (PICEAS) was a line-transect survey for cetaceans was conducted within the Palmyra exclusive economic zone (EEZ)(20 October - 18 November 2011). The set of standard tracklines surveyed was established prior to the cruise and was intended to cover approximately two thirds of the Palmyra Atoll EEZ transect line grid used for the 2005 PICEAS (AR-05-07) survey conducted by Southwest Fisheries Science Center. This was the first of two surveys that were designed to cover the entire Palmyra EEZ. Twenty-eight days of on-effort surveys were completed during the cruise, resulting in 28 cetacean sightings including seven identified species and five types of unidentified cetaceans. Supplemental information: Data were collected under NMFS permit 14097. The data included here are the sightings and on-effort tracks recorded within WinCruz survey software and extracted from the QA/QC'd DAS file using the R package swfscDAS (https://smwoodman.github.io/swfscDAS). Attributes for fields within the trackline files: Cruise - see description in attribute table below segnum - segment number for continuous on-effort line Date - Local date m/dd/yyyy TimeStart - Local time at start of on-effort segment LatStart - Latitude in decimal degrees at starting point of on-effort segment LongStart - Longitude in decimal degrees at starting point of on-effort segment TimeEnd - Local time at end of on-effort segment LatEnd - Latitude in decimal degrees at end point of on-effort segment LongEnd - Longitude in decimal degrees at end point of on-effort segment Mode - see description in attribute table below EffType - see description in attribute table below avgSpdKt - average speed (knots) of the ship over the on-effort segment traveled avgBft - average Beaufort Sea State over the on-effort segment Other data not included here: Photos and biopsy samples were collected during some sightings. There were acoustic detections from the towed hydrophone array. Sonobuoys were deployed opportunistically. A High-frequency Acoustic Recording Package (HARP) was deployed off Kingman Reef. Oceanographic data were collected (CTD, XBT). See the PIFSC Cetacean Survey, PICEAS 2012, Cruise 1203, NOAA Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center for cetacean sightings and effort within the remaining portion of the Palmyra EEZ.