Santa Barbara Channel Marine BON: Gray Whales Count

This dataset documents the passage of gray whales (Eschrichtius robustus) migrating northbound since 2007, through the nearshore areas of the Santa Barbara Channel, along a corridor extending approximately 3 nautical miles (nm) from the mainland shore. The data is collected by a non-profit organization Gray Whales Count (http://www.graywhalescount.org/GWC/The_Count/The_Count.htmt), which is a research and education project. The survey is conducted at the Coal Oil Point Reserve in Goleta, California, USA. The coastline runs east-west, with northbound whales traveling west, left to right across our Point towards Point Conception. Every year, we survey 98 consecutive days from early February through mid-May. Conditions permitting, each survey-day begins at 9 AM and ends usually at 5 PM.