IMIS - Marine Research Groups

This 1996 line-transect survey was designed to estimate the abundance of and to describe the distribution of dolphins, whales, and porpoises off the west coast of the United States out to 300 nautical miles. This survey was conducted by the NOAA Southwest Fisheries Science Center aboard NOAA Ships David Starr Jordan and McArthur for a combined total of approximately 15,000 kilometers surveyed from mid July to early November 1996. This dataset provides the time-date and geographical coordinates, by species/stock, of all cetaceans detected during the survey, as well as the daily and intra-daily start and end points of the line-transect survey. Purpose The primary purpose of this survey was to estimate the abundance of and to describe the distribution of dolphins, whales, and porpoises off the west coast of the United States out to 300 nautical miles.