North Pacific Whale Visual and Passive Observations from 2019 Research Cruise

Visual assessments and passive observations of sei, humpback, and gray whales collected from the research vessel Yushin-Maru No. 2. The dataset was submitted to the World Data Service for Oceanography by NOAA_NCEI and covers a cruise from July to September 2019 in the North Pacific Ocean and Gulf of Alaska. The cruise aimed to provide information for whale assessments, including for the critically endangered North Pacific right whale.

Use Cases

• Modeling whale abundance and distribution based on visual assessment data.
• Analyzing stock structure for sei, humpback, and gray whales based on observation records.
• Establishing baseline information for other cetacean species in a poorly known area.
• Supporting the development of international conservation programs based on the cruise objectives.

Strengths

• Data collected during a dedicated research cruise with four specific scientific objectives.
• Observations target multiple whale species, including the critically endangered North Pacific right whale.
• Geographic coverage includes the North Pacific Ocean and Gulf of Alaska.

Limitations

• Data are in PDF format, which may hinder direct computational analysis.
• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.

Provenance

Source

NOAA_NCEI

Collection Method

Collected via visual assessments and passive observations from the research vessel Yushin-Maru No. 2.

Time Range

2019-07 06 to 2019-09-28

Freshness

Last updated 2019-09-28 00:00:00; freshness should be verified.

Geography

North Pacific Ocean and Gulf of Alaska