Abstract:
An Atlantic Ocean ship survey was conducted by NOAA Southeast Fisheries Science Center in 1999 to evaluate abundance, distribution and stock structure of cetaceans in southeastern U.S. Atlantic waters. Data gathered on this survey will provide abundance estimates for calculating the Potential Biological Removal for U.S. Atlantic waters as required by the 1994 amendments to the Marine Mammal
... Protection Act.
During the 32 survey days, at least 12 cetacean species were sighted, including
Atlantic spotted dolphin
Bottlenose dolphin
Clymene dolphin
Common dolphin
Fraser's dolphin
Melon-headed whale
Pantropical spotted dolphin
Pilot whale
Risso's dolphin
Rough-toothed dolphin
Sperm whale
Striped dolphin.
The dataset is accompanied by transect data which is provided as a separate file. 
Purpose:
The purpose of this survey is to examine the distribution and estimate abundance of cetaceans in U.S. waters. Specific objectives of this survey are:
1. Obtain minimum abundance estimate for calculating Potential Biological Removal for each species.
2. Collect biopsy tissue samples to evaluate stock structure.
3.Establish and build time-series databases for monitoring trends in abundance.
4.
... Examine distribution in relation to physiographic and oceanographic features.
5. Obtain photographs and video images of selected species for photo-identification studies.
CURRENTNESS REFERENCE: ground condition
SPATIAL DATA ORGANIZATION INFORMATION
Direct Spatial Reference: Vector
SDTS Point and Vector Object Type: Entity point
Point and Vector Object Count: 1250
SPATIAL REFERENCE INFORMATION - GEODETIC MODEL
Horizontal Datum Name: D_WGS_1984
Ellipsoid Name: WGS_1984
Semi-major Axis: 6378137.000000
Denominator of Flattening Ratio: 298.257224
NATIVE: Microsoft Windows 2000 Version 5.0 (Build 2195) Service Pack 4; ESRI ArcCatalog 8.3.0.800
