Dataset

Historical occurrence of whales in Scottish Waters inferred from whaling records

OBIS-SEAMAP Open in mapper Explore occurrences

Original provider: Conor Ryan Dataset credits: IWC Abstract: Archived logbooks detailing landings at Scottish shore-based whaling stations between 1903 and 1951 were used to map whale catch locations. Historical distribution and occurrence are inferred and summary statistics on total landings are updated for blue (Balaenoptera musculus), fin (Balaenoptera physalus), humpback (Megaptera novaeangliae), North Atlantic right (Eubalaena glacialis), sei (Balaenoptera borealis) and sperm (Physeter macrocephalus) whales: a total of 9,996 whales were caught during this period, which is 3.7% higher than previously reported and 25% higher for blue whales.

Citation: Ryan, C. 2022. Historical occurrence of whales in Scottish Waters inferred from whaling records. Version 1.0.0. Dataset published in OBIS-SEAMAP. https://doi.org/10.82144/64638a33.

Published: October 08, 2025 at 13:56

URL: https://ipt.env.duke.edu/resource?r=zd_2213

Conor Ryan
Scottish Association for Marine Science

3,987
occurrence records
7
taxa
7
species

Taxa

Missing and invalid fields

Field Missing Invalid
coordinateUncertaintyInMeters 3,987
100.0%
maximumDepthInMeters 3,987
100.0%
minimumDepthInMeters 3,987
100.0%

Quality flags

The OBIS data quality flags are documented at https://github.com/iobis/obis-qc.

Flag Dropped Records
NO_DEPTH 3,987
100.0%
ON_LAND 1
0.0%

Measurement types

DNA derived data