Oil Industry Marine Mammal Aerial Data

This data set was collected as part of the Joint Monitoring Program during seismic activities in the Chukchi Sea in summer and fall of 2006. The objective of the aerial surveys was to update data on distribution and relative abundance of marine mammals in coastal areas of the eastern Chukchi Sea during the open-water season. Aerial surveys were conducted from Barrow to Point Hope in two ways: a sawtooth flight pattern and a coastline flight pattern. The sawtooth survey was broad-scale, reaching approximately 20 nm offshore. The coastal survey hugged the coastline, focusing on nearshore areas and lagoons.

Aerial surveys were conducted in 2006 to monitor marine mammal abundance, distribution, and behavior and determine the potential effects of offshore seismic exploration activities on marine mammals. Surveys focused on beluga, bowhead, and gray whales, though other marine mammals were observed. Pinniped observations were made, but were limited due to flight altitude and speed. This dataset is part of the Pacific Marine Arctic Regional Synthesis (PacMARS) Project.

This dataset contains the original CSV files, metadata files, shapefiles, and geodatabase files in ZIP files.