Table of Contents

• Coverage
• Dataset Description
  • Methods & Sampling
• Data Files
• Parameters
• Instruments
• Deployments
• Project Information
• Program Information
• Funding

GLOBEC NEP Northern California Current Cetacean Survey Data
R/V New Horizon cruises NH0005 and 0007

Line-transect surveys of cetaceans were conducted during two cruises of the GLOBEC Northeast Pacific Northern California Current (NCC) program in 2000: May 29 -June 13 and July 27 - August 12. Surveys were conducted across the shelf and slope off Oregon and northern California (41.9° - 44.65° N) from the coast to ~125.5°W. 

For additional information please see the following publication:
Cynthia T. Tynan, David G. Ainley, John A. Barth, Timothy J. Cowles, Stephen D. Pierce and Larry B. Spear, 2005. Cetacean distributions relative to ocean processes in the northern California Current System Deep Sea Research Part II: Topical Studies in Oceanography, Volume 52, Issues 1-2, January 2005, Pages 145-167

Any questions, contact PIs:
Cynthia T. Tynan
David G. Ainley (H.T. Harvey & Associates)

updated 09/14/05, gfh

Surveys were conducted in passing mode while the R/V New Horizon was in transit between stations for hydrographic and zooplankton sampling. Observations were conducted from the flying bridge during daylight (~0600 to 2030) whenever sufficient visibility (i.e., > 2 nm) and weather (i.e., < Beaufort 6) allowed. Two observers simultaneously surveyed to the horizon with 25 x 150 binoculars, equipped with compass and reticle. Each observer surveyed a 100° arc from 10° off the bow (opposite side) to 90° on their side of the ship. A third observer focused on the track-line by eye, aided with 7 x 50 hand-held binoculars. Sightings were entered immediately on a laptop computer connected to the ship's GPS system. Positions of all sightings were corrected to reflect the actual location of the cetaceans, rather than the ship's position. The height from the surface of the water to the eyes of observers on the 25 x 150 binoculars was 10.87 m.

Program in a Nutshell

Goal: To understand the effects of climate variability and climate change on the distribution, abundance and production of marine animals (including commercially important living marine resources) in the eastern North Pacific. To embody this understanding in diagnostic and prognostic ecosystem models, capable of capturing the ecosystem response to major climatic fluctuations.

Approach: To study the effects of past and present climate variability on the population ecology and population dynamics of marine biota and living marine resources, and to use this information as a proxy for how the ecosystems of the eastern North Pacific may respond to future global climate change. The strong temporal variability in the physical and biological signals of the NEP will be used to examine the biophysical mechanisms through which zooplankton and salmon populations respond to physical forcing and biological interactions in the coastal regions of the two gyres. Annual and interannual variability will be studied directly through long-term observations and detailed process studies; variability at longer time scales will be examined through retrospective analysis of directly measured and proxy data. Coupled biophysical models of the ecosystems of these regions will be developed and tested using the process studies and data collected from the long-term observation programs, then further tested and improved by hindcasting selected retrospective data series.

U.S. GLOBEC (GLOBal ocean ECosystems dynamics) is a research program organized by oceanographers and fisheries scientists to address the question of how global climate change may affect the abundance and production of animals in the sea.

The U.S. GLOBEC Program currently had major research efforts underway in the Georges Bank / Northwest Atlantic Region, and the Northeast Pacific (with components in the California Current and in the Coastal Gulf of Alaska). U.S. GLOBEC was a major contributor to International GLOBEC efforts in the Southern Ocean and Western Antarctic Peninsula (WAP).