Cuvier's Beaked Whale and Fin Whale Surveys at the Southern California Offshore Anti-submarine Warfare Range (SOAR)

Original provider: Marine Ecology and Telemetry Research Dataset credits: Marine Ecology and Telemetry Research Abstract: The United States (US) Navy uses the Southern California (SOCAL) portion of the Hawaii-Southern California Training and Testing area, a collection of nearshore and offshore training areas that include much of the navigable water from Santa Barbara Island, California, to northern Baja California, Mexico, and extending several hundred miles to the west. It is among one of the most heavily used tactical training areas in the world, and is used for a variety of aerial, surface, and subsurface exercises. The Southern California Offshore Range (SCORE) is a subset of complexes within SOCAL centered on San Clemente Island and managed via the Range Operation Center (ROC) on North Island, Coronado. It includes the Southern California Anti-submarine Warfare Range (SOAR), a focal area for exercises involving mid-frequency active sonar (MFAS) systems within the San Nicolas Basin. Through its N45 Living Marine Resources (LMR) research programs, and more recently in support of Pacific Fleet Monitoring efforts, the US Navy has funded directed studies on cetacean occurrence on SOAR since 2006. The primary focus of these studies is to support long-term surveys of Cuvier’s beaked whales and fin whales using photo-identification (photo-ID) and genetics to elucidate population size, structure, and trends, which can in turn provide a particularly robust basis for assessing population-level impacts of Navy training. Data is collected on all species encountered in this region as part of the monitoring program.

Citation: Rone, B. 2022. Cuvier's Beaked Whale and Fin Whale Surveys at the Southern California Offshore Anti-submarine Warfare Range (SOAR). Version 1.1.0. Dataset published in OBIS-SEAMAP. https://doi.org/10.82144/2bac19b0.

Published: February 11, 2026 at 22:17

License: This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC-BY-NC) 4.0 License

URL: https://ipt.env.duke.edu/resource?r=zd_2216