• Arctic SDI catalogue
  •  
  •  
  •  

Spatial density models of cetaceans in the Canadian Pacific estimated from 2018 ship-based surveys

Many cetacean species were depleted in Canadian Pacific waters by commercial whaling, which ended in 1967. Although some populations have since shown evidence of recovery, there is limited information about the current abundance and geographic distribution of many species, particularly in difficult-to-survey offshore regions. This lack of baseline data hampers conservation status assessments, including estimating population-level impacts of anthropogenic activities. From July to early September 2018, we conducted ship-based surveys of cetaceans throughout the coastal and offshore waters of British Columbia. Density surface modelling (DSM) was used to produce spatially-explicit abundance estimates and distribution maps for four commonly-encountered cetacean species: the humpback whale (Megaptera novaeangliae), fin whale (Balaenoptera physalus), Dall’s porpoise (Phocoenoides dalli) and harbour porpoise (Phocoena phocoena). We estimated abundances of 7,030 (95% CI = 5,733-8,620) humpback whales, 2,893 (95% CI = 2,171-3,855) fin whales, 23,692 (95% CI = 19,121-29,356) Dall’s porpoises and 5,207 (95% CI = 2,769-9,793) harbour porpoises throughout Canadian Pacific waters. Our results complement design-based abundance estimates calculated from the same survey data, and can be compared with past habitat modelling studies and historical whaling catch data to estimate the extent of recovery of previously harvested populations. The return of these predators to habitats from which they were previously extirpated will have important ecosystem-level implications. The DSM results can contribute to calculations of Potential Biological Removal estimates to inform fisheries bycatch, as well as providing spatial data that can be used to assess the risk of entanglements, ship strikes, acoustic disturbance, and other anthropogenic threats.

This dataset contains model-predicted densities of four commonly-encountered cetacean species (humpback whale, fin whale, Dall's porpoise and harbour porpoise) that were estimated using ship-based, visual survey data collected during the Pacific Region International Survey of Marine Megafauna (PRISMM) in July-August of 2018. Abundance of each species (where relevant) is provided for three gridded strata (25 km2 cell size) in the Pacific Region: one for the offshore, extending to Canada’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ), and two for coastal areas (the North Coast and the Salish Sea).

Simple

Date ( RI_366 )
2023-01-23
Date ( RI_367 )
2023-02-27
RI_415
  Government of Canada; Fisheries and Oceans Canada; Science/Ecosystems Science - Thomas Doniol-Valcroze ( Research Scientist )
Pacific Biological Station, 3190 Hammond Bay Road , Nanaimo , British Columbia , V9T 6N7 , Canada
250-739-2168
Status
completed; complété RI_593
Maintenance and update frequency
asNeeded; auBesoin RI_540
Keywords ( RI_525 )
  • British Columbia
  • Pacific Ocean
Keywords ( RI_528 )
  • ship-based surveys
  • distance sampling
  • cetacean
  • whale
  • porpoise
  • abundance
  • density
  • distribution
Government of Canada Core Subject Thesaurus Thésaurus des sujets de base du gouvernement du Canada ( RI_528 )
  • Fisheries
  • Oceans
  • Population
Classification
unclassified; nonClassifié RI_484
Use limitation
Open Government Licence - Canada (http://open.canada.ca/en/open-government-licence-canada)
Access constraints
license; licence RI_606
Use constraints
license; licence RI_606
Spatial representation type
grid; grille RI_636
Metadata language
eng
Character set
utf8; utf8 RI_458
Topic category
  • Biota
Begin date
2018-07
End date
2018-09
N
S
E
W
thumbnail


Reference system identifier
http://www.epsg-registry.org / EPSG:4326 / 1
Distribution format
  • SHP ( unknown )

RI_412
  Government of Canada; Fisheries and Oceans Canada; Science/Ecosystems Science - Brianna Wright ( Research Biologist )
Pacific Biological Station, 3190 Hammond Bay Road , Nanaimo , British Columbia , V9T 6N7 , Canada
250-756-7253
OnLine resource
Data Dictionary ( HTTPS )

Supporting Document;HTML;eng,fra

OnLine resource
References ( HTTPS )

Supporting Document;HTML;eng,fra

OnLine resource
Spatial Density Models of Cetaceans in the Canadian Pacific ( HTTPS )

Web Service;ESRI REST;eng,fra

OnLine resource
Spatial Density Models of Cetaceans - PRISMM ( HTTPS )

Dataset;SHP;eng

File identifier
39546277-b33e-4f80-8a2d-3ca1ce5b1401 XML
Metadata language
eng; CAN
Character set
utf8; utf8 RI_458
Hierarchy level
dataset; jeuDonnées RI_622
Date stamp
2025-02-06T12:39:31.214Z
Metadata standard name
North American Profile of ISO 19115:2003 - Geographic information - Metadata
Metadata standard version
CAN/CGSB-171.100-2009
RI_414
  Government of Canada; Fisheries and Oceans Canada; Science/Ecosystems Science - Brianna Wright ( Research Biologist )
Pacific Biological Station, 3190 Hammond Bay Road , Nanaimo , British Columbia , V9T 6N7 , Canada
250-756-7253
Dataset URI
urn:lsid:marinespecies.org:taxname:242598
 
 

Overviews

overview
PRISMM_Strata_withEffort.jpg

Spatial extent

N
S
E
W
thumbnail


Keywords


Provided by

logo

Associated resources

Not available


  •  
  •  
  •