European Ocean Biodiversity Information System

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YoNAH Encounter
Citation
Stevick, P. 2013. YoNAH Encounter. Data downloaded from OBIS-SEAMAP (http://seamap.env.duke.edu/dataset/274) on yyyy-mm-dd. https://marineinfo.org/id/dataset/1996

Access data
Archived data
Availability: Creative Commons License This dataset is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

Description
The Years of the North Atlantic Humpback whale (YoNAH) is the broadest-ranging, most intensive study ever undertaken of a marine mammal species. Standardized sampling protocols were used in all areas to minimizes biases due to sampling. The YoNAH project collected photographs of individually distinctive natural markings, genetic samples and behaviour data on humpback whales in the North Atlantic Ocean. more

Field work began in January 1992 with a large-scale study of humpbacks in their principal West Indies breeding range at Silver Bank, Navidad Bank and Samana Bay, Dominican Republic; and Mona Passage, Puerto Rico. During summer, sampling was conducted in all the known major North Atlantic feeding grounds: the Gulf of Maine, Gulf of St. Lawrence, Newfoundland, Labrador, southwestern Greenland, Iceland, and Norway. In 1993 the same schedule of field work was repeated. Purpose: The YoNAH project is a unique research program utilizing photo-identification techniques and molecular genetics to conduct an intensive survey of the population ecology of humpack whales throughout their known North Atlantic range. This internationally collaborative project involves scientists from seven nations. YoNAH's vast database supports a wide range of scientific investigations and also provides reliable, detailed information on which to base management policy. Archives of photographs, tissue samples and data will provide a valuable legacy for future research. Supplemental information: [2015-03-24] A sighting record at 1993-02-07 10:45:00 had a wrong animal count of zero. The value is replaced with a blank representing species presence only. The notes for this sighting mentions "NO GROUP SIZE ESTIMATE". A sighting record at 1992-08-04 15:00:00 had a wrong animal count of zero. The value is replaced with "1" that is an average of min and max counts, 0 and 2 respectively. Data collection and analyses were conducted by research groups familiar with the study sites and with a history in use of these techniques for the study of humpback whale ecology. Allied Whale is responsible for photographic analysis and for database management. All the 5,500 photographs have been compared to one another to identify re-sightings. The accompanying databases are receiving final corrections and revisions. There are five datasets from YoNAH, including this one. Behavior of whales were recorded in some surveys. Biopsy samples and photographs were taken if possible. Ships efforts and sightings of species other than humpback whales are recorded in the Effort dataset.

Scope
Themes:
Biology > Mammals
Keywords:
Marine/Coastal, Marine mammals, ship, Whales, ANE, Iceland, ANE, Norway, ANW, Canada, Labrador, ANW, Canada, Newfoundland, ANW, Canada, St. Lawrence Gulf, ANW, Greenland, ANW, USA, Maine Gulf, ASW, Caribbean, EurOBIS calculated BBOX, Megaptera novaeangliae (Borowski, 1781)

Geographical coverage
ANE, Iceland [Marine Regions]
ANE, Norway [Marine Regions]
ANW, Canada, Labrador [Marine Regions]
ANW, Canada, Newfoundland [Marine Regions]
ANW, Canada, St. Lawrence Gulf [Marine Regions]
ANW, Greenland [Marine Regions]
ANW, USA, Maine Gulf [Marine Regions]
ASW, Caribbean [Marine Regions]
EurOBIS calculated BBOX Stations
Bounding Box
Coordinates: MinLong: -70,6272; MinLat: 18,0013 - MaxLong: 40,6; MaxLat: 78,15 [WGS84]

Temporal coverage
1992 - 1993

Taxonomic coverage
Megaptera novaeangliae (Borowski, 1781) [WoRMS]

Contributor
University of Southern Maine; Bioscience Research Institute, moredata owner

Related datasets
Published in:
EurOBIS: European Ocean Biodiversity Information System, more
OBIS-SEAMAP: Spatial Ecological Analysis of Megavertebrate Populations, more

Dataset status: Completed
Data type: Data
Data origin: Research
Metadatarecord created: 2009-06-09
Information last updated: 2022-08-11
All data in the Integrated Marine Information System (IMIS) is subject to the VLIZ privacy policy