PIFSC, Cetacean Survey, WHICEAS 2020, Cruise 2001, NOAA Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center

Keywords: Occurrence, Observation, Occurrence,Marine Animal Survey,Marine Biology,Marine mammals,Visual Sighting,Vessel
Temporal coverage: 2020/2020

Original provider:
NOAA Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center (PIFSC)

Dataset credits:
NOAA Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center

Abstract:
The Winter Hawaiian Islands Cetacean and Ecosystem Assessment Survey (referred to as “Winter HICEAS”) of 2020 was a ship-board survey for cetaceans and seabirds within offshore waters surrounding the main Hawaiian Islands (MHI). This project used many of the same methods as the previous HICEAS projects which occurred in 2002 (Barlow 2006), 2010 (Bradford et al. 2017), and 2017 (Yano et al. 2018).
The Winter HICEAS 2020 project represents the third cetacean and ecosystem assessment survey conducted as part of the Pacific Marine Assessment Program for Protected Species (PacMAPPS), a partnership between NOAA Fisheries, Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM), and the U.S. Navy. PacMAPPS includes rotational ship surveys in regions of joint interest throughout the Pacific designed to estimate the abundance of cetaceans and seabirds and to assess the ecosystems supporting these species. The previous PacMAPPS surveys include the 2017 HICEAS and 2018 California Current Ecosystem Survey. The HICEAS project was a collaborative effort between the Pacific Islands and the Southwest Fisheries Science Centers (PIFSC and SWFSC) and surveyed the U.S. waters surrounding the northwestern and main Hawaiian Islands from July through December 2017, whereas the 2018 California Current Ecosystem Survey, led by the SWFSC, surveyed waters offshore from the U.S. West Coast from June through December 2018 (Henry et al. 2020).
Winter HICEAS 2020 sailed aboard the NOAA Ship Oscar Elton Sette (hereafter referred to as the Sette) for 51 days-at-sea. The project was conducted during 2 survey “legs”; Leg 1 sailed on 18 January to 12 February and Leg 2 sailed on 17 February to 12 March.
During 51 days-at-sea, there were 326 cetacean sightings  and 53 groups of dolphins and whales that could not be identified to species

Supplemental information:
Data were collected under NMFS permit 20311.
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 during some sightings. Acoustic detections were recorded from a towed hydrophone array. Sonobuoys were deployed opportunistically. Drifting Acoustic Spar Buoy Recorders (DASBRs) were deployed and recovered opportunistically.  A High-frequency Acoustic Recording Package (HARP) was recovered and redeployed off the Kona Coast of Hawaii Island. Oceanographic data were collected (CTD).