Annotating vocal activity segments of wild killer whales, humpback whales, sperm whales and fin whales from Norway

The labeling of individual vocal activity segments, termed annotation, is a crucial component of bioacoustics research. The aim of this manuscript is to provide the necessary information for bioacoustics researchers to browse, interpret and annotate acoustic recordings of four species of wild cetaceans from coastal waters of Norway. The animals in this dataset have been recorded in their natural habitat. Here, we offer instructions on how to distinguish vocalizations belonging to these four different cetacean species, and how to label the onset and offset as well as the frequency range of vocal signals. Through this resource, we offer future annotators of similar datasets a template designed to minimize variation among their annotations.