Bering Sea wintering grounds of beluga whales, 2006, Hobbs, R.

The intent of this project was to identify and define the winter habitat of beluga whales in the Bering Sea and determine
which stocks of whales were moving along the coast of the Chukotka Peninsula in the fall. In November-December 2003 and
October-November 2004 field projects were conducted in an area of Lavrentia Bay where belugas have regularly occurred in
the weeks before ice formation. In 2003 and 2004, beluga did not enter the study area and were not reported in other parts
of the bay. Local knowledge indicated that the sequence of ice formation had recently changed with ice forming in the bay prior
to ice formation in the Bering Strait rather than the other way around and the beluga had no reason to enter the bay. At this
same time the Canadian collaborators in this project succeeded in attaching tags to whales from this same population in July
that lasted through the winter and in one case for over 400 days. With the increased tag longevity there was no need to continue
trying to capture beluga in Lavrentia Bay during the fall. Consequently the project was refocused to capture beluga in the Anadyr
River during the summer, and develop a tag that could be deployed from the ice edge during the winter in Lavrentia Bay when captures
with a net are not possible. To this end a field project was conducted in late August 2005. Unfortunately the salmon runs that bring
beluga near shore in August ended during the first week of this field project and there were no opportunities to capture whales.
A second field project was planned for early August 2006 during which 1 whale was caught and a transmitter attached which continues
to transmit as of the writing of this report. During weather days in the 2004 and 2005 field seasons harpoon deployment systems were
developed, to date no opportunities to attach these to belugas have occurred. A field season in the Anadyr River is planned for August
2007 to attach the remaining transmitters, including trials of the harpoon attachment system. These datasets were archived as part of the North Pacific Research Board legacy project recovery effort undertaken by Axiom Data Science and NPRB in 2025. The goal of the recovery effort was to assess the NPRB-funded data projects from 2002 to 2014 and archive final data packages that were ready for publication to increase long-term accessibility and discoverability. Data packages were archived as is given limited funding and resources.

本项目旨在识别并界定白令海（Bering Sea）中白鲸的冬季栖息地，并明确秋季沿楚科奇半岛（Chukotka Peninsula）沿岸洄游的白鲸种群。2003年11-12月及2004年10-11月，我们在拉夫连季亚湾（Lavrentia Bay）的一片区域开展野外调查——该区域历来在海冰形成前数周有白鲸活动记录。但2003与2004年，白鲸未进入研究区域，该海湾其他区域也无相关观测报告。当地原住民知识显示，近期海湾的海冰形成时序发生变化：海湾海冰形成早于白令海峡（Bering Strait），而非此前的相反顺序，因此白鲸无进入该海湾的必要。同期，本项目的加拿大合作方于同年7月成功为该种群的白鲸佩戴了追踪标签（tags），标签续航时长覆盖整个冬季，其中一枚标签的工作时长超过400天。鉴于标签续航能力的提升，无需再在秋季于拉夫连季亚湾尝试捕获白鲸，因此项目调整重心：于夏季在阿纳德尔河（Anadyr River）开展白鲸捕获工作，并研发可在冬季于拉夫连季亚湾冰缘部署的标签，彼时无法通过网捕方式捕获白鲸。为此，我们于2005年8月下旬开展了一次野外调查，但不巧的是，往年8月吸引白鲸近岸的鲑鱼洄游在本次调查的第一周便已结束，未能获得任何捕获白鲸的机会。随后计划于2006年8月上旬开展第二次野外调查，此次成功捕获1头白鲸并为其安装了发射器，截至本报告撰写时，该发射器仍在持续传输数据。在2004及2005年的野外季期间，我们研发了鱼叉式标签部署系统，但截至目前尚未获得将其应用于白鲸的机会。我们计划于2007年8月在阿纳德尔河开展一次野外调查，以完成剩余发射器的安装工作，同时测试鱼叉式标签部署系统。本数据集作为北太平洋研究委员会（North Pacific Research Board, NPRB）遗留项目数据抢救工作的一部分，由Axiom Data Science与NPRB于2025年完成归档。该数据抢救工作的目标为评估2002至2014年间由NPRB资助的科研项目，并归档可正式发布的最终数据集包，以提升数据的长期可访问性与可发现性。鉴于资金与资源有限，所有数据集均按原始状态完成归档。