Dataset

Cascadia Research Blue Whale Photo IDs for US West Coast, 1972-2004

OBIS-SEAMAP Open in mapper Explore occurrences

Original provider: Cascadia Research Collective Dataset credits: Cascadia Research Abstract: This dataset consists of 6,560 sighting records, including at least 1,803 uniquely identified blue whales. These were collected by Cascadia Research and collaborators from the eastern North Pacific from 1975 through 2004 (data collection is continuing). The primary extent of this dataset includes waters off California, Oregon, and Washington from 1986 to 2004, which accounts for over 6,000 of the records. Additional sighting records are from other regions of the North Pacific including the Eastern Tropical Pacific, British Columbia, and Alaska. These data represent the most extensive database of blue whale sightings available from the waters off the western United States and have provided the primary information available on movements and abundance of eastern North Pacific blue whales. Effort was not evenly distributed throughout the region so sighting locations are biased towards areas of highest effort. ID field links resightings of the same individual.

Citation: Calambokidis, J. 2013. Cascadia Research Blue Whale Photo IDs for US West Coast, 1972-2004. Version 1.7.0. Dataset published in OBIS-SEAMAP. https://doi.org/10.82144/0cbd04d0.

Published: October 07, 2025 at 18:28

URL: http://ipt.env.duke.edu/resource?r=zd_99

John Calambokidis
John Calambokidis

6,530
occurrence records
1
taxa
1
species

Taxa

Missing and invalid fields

Field Missing Invalid
coordinateUncertaintyInMeters 6,530
100.0%
maximumDepthInMeters 6,530
100.0%
minimumDepthInMeters 6,530
100.0%

Quality flags

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

Flag Dropped Records
NO_DEPTH 6,530
100.0%
ON_LAND 8
0.1%

Measurement types

DNA derived data