PIFSC, Cetacean Survey, HITEC 2016, Cruise 1604, 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 Hawaiian Islands Technology for the Ecology of Cetaceans (HI-TEC) survey was a shipboard line-transect survey within 50 nmi of the main Hawaiian Islands (28 June - 27 July 2016). The survey was broken into two legs. Leg 1 (28 June - 4 July) was dedicated to unmanned aerial system (UAS) flight test operations. Leg 2 (4-27 July) included surveys in both leeward and windward water of the islands including offshore seamounts. The ship had to divert from the study area (23-24 July) to avoid Tropical Storm Darby. There were 99 cetacean sightings during which there were 13 species identified and other unidentified dolphins, large whales, and beaked whales. Supplemental information: Data were collected under NMFS permit 15240. 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 and satellite tags were deployed during some sightings. Acoustic detections were recorded from a towed hydrophone array. Sonobuoys were deployed opportunistically. High-frequency Acoustic Recording Packages (HARP) were recovered and redeployed off the Kona Coast of Hawaii Island, deployed off Kauai and at Cross Seamount. Oceanographic data were collected (CTD, XBT). UAS operations occurred during some sightings.