HLY-07-01 and HLY-07-02 Observations of Marine Mammals of Beringia. Version 1.0

This dataset contains marine mammal observations onboard the US Coast Guard Cutter Healy during the Bering Sea Ecosystem Study-Bering Sea Integrated Ecosystem Research Program (BEST-BSIERP) 2007 0701 and 0702 cruises in the Bering Sea. BEST-BSIERP together are the Bering Sea project. The objective of this project has been to observe marine mammals in the context of their sea-ice "seascape" habitat. Emphasis has been placed on the winter-spring period during which Pacific walruses and ribbon seals use sea ice for reproduction, molting, rest, and as a platform for feeding and migration. The thesis is that marine mammals partition sea-ice habitat according to their life-history requirements: for Pacific walruses, "broken pack" and for ribbon seals "loose pack" provide this habitat. The data files are in Excel, csv and jpg format.