Cetacean Sightings Survey and Southern Ocean Cetacean Program - BROKE-West

The SOCEP research objective is to detect and document cetacean sightings and relevant environmental and other information throughout the voyage. The BROKE-West multidisciplinary voyage provides an opportunity to correlate sightings data with oceanographic and biology research conducted by other programs. Search effort is conducted over a broad range of weather conditions. The majority of Antarctic species are medium to large whales, with cues that can be detected in relatively high Beaufort sea states up to and including Beaufort Sea State 7.