Occurrence

Tethys Research Institute shipboard survey cetacean sightings 1986-2012

Latest version published by OBIS-SEAMAP on 24 April 2021 OBIS-SEAMAP
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Publication date:
24 April 2021
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CC-BY-NC 4.0

Download the latest version of this resource data as a Darwin Core Archive (DwC-A) or the resource metadata as EML or RTF:

Data as a DwC-A file download 8,469 records in English (788 KB) - Update frequency: not planned
Metadata as an EML file download in English (25 KB)
Metadata as an RTF file download in English (18 KB)

Description

Original provider: Tethys Research Institute Dataset credits: Tethys Research Institute Abstract: This dataset, belonging as a whole to Tethys Research Institute, comprises the work carried out between 1986 and 2012 mainly in the Mediterranean Sea and in particular in the Corso-Ligurian-Provencal basin, in the Ionian Sea and in the Adriatic Sea. Research has also been carried out investigating cetaceans in Atlantic Ocean (Canary Islands, Morocco coasts) and in the Caribbean Sea. The dataset generated includes more than 8.400 sightings of cetaceans collected in 25 years of research activity. Purpose: Founded in 1986, the Tethys Research Institute is a private non-profit organization specializing in cetacean research. Tethys has generated one of the largest datasets on Mediterranean cetaceans and contributed over 300 scientific publications. Tethys aims to protect the Mediterranean biodiversity by promoting the adoption of a precautionary approach for the management of natural resources. The work carried out by Tethys strives to prevent the decline of marine species and to encourage sustainable use of the marine environment. Tethys first conceived and proposed the creation a Marine Reserve in the Corso-Ligurian Basin, the “Pelagos Sanctuary.” Several internationally renowned institutions have emphasized the importance of the Sanctuary, including the World Conservation Union (IUCN), the Bonn Convention on migratory species, and the newly-born Agreement on the Conservation of Cetaceans of the Mediterranean Sea, Black Sea and Contiguous Atlantic Areas (ACCOBAMS). The Sanctuary has also been added to the list of Specially Protected Areas of Mediterranean Importance (SPAMI), created at the Barcelona Convention in 1999. This makes the Ligurian Sea Cetacean Sanctuary the first and only high seas protected area in the world. Moreover, based primarily on data collected by the Tethys Research Institute, a Dolphin Reserve was formally established in Losinj, Croatia in 2006. Research methods utilized by Tethys include the use of remote sensing and telemetry data, the combined use of laser range-finding binoculars and GPS to record the movements of whales, population studies based on distance sampling and photographic capture-recapture, bioacoustics research, behavioral sampling, remote collection of biopsy samples for genetic and toxicological analyses, and historical studies. The Institute holds vast photographic archives of cetacean images that have enabled the identification of over 1,500 individuals of eight Mediterranean species. Tethys Research Institute has involved in its expeditions thousands of people from all over the world, and has developed a remarkable cetacean research and conservation network. Tethys has been conducting its research and conservation activities thanks to support received from national and international organizations. Tethys is partner to the UNEP's Agreement on the Conservation of Cetaceans in the Black Sea, Mediterranean Sea and Contiguous Atlantic Area (ACCOBAMS). The Italian Ministry of the Environment funded various cetacean research and conservation activities carried out by the Institute. The UNEP's Regional Activity Centre for Specially Protected Areas (RAC-SPA), the Earthwatch Institute, OceanCare and The Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society WDCS have been providing support to specific projects conducted by Tethys in the context of a long-term collaboration. Supplemental information: [2015-03-24] A few records had a wrong animal count of zero. The value is replaced with a blank representing species presence only. [2014-03-05] 2011-2012 data were added. Effort data are only available for a subset of surveys. For records with time and observed count not available, the corresponding columns were empty.

Data Records

The data in this occurrence resource has been published as a Darwin Core Archive (DwC-A), which is a standardized format for sharing biodiversity data as a set of one or more data tables. The core data table contains 8,469 records.

This IPT archives the data and thus serves as the data repository. The data and resource metadata are available for download in the downloads section. The versions table lists other versions of the resource that have been made publicly available and allows tracking changes made to the resource over time.

Versions

The table below shows only published versions of the resource that are publicly accessible.

How to cite

Researchers should cite this work as follows:

Lanfredi, C. and G. Notarbartolo di Sciara. 2014. Tethys Research Institute shipboard survey cetacean sightings 1986-2012. Data downloaded from OBIS-SEAMAP (http://seamap.env.duke.edu/dataset/774) on yyyy-mm-dd.

Rights

Researchers should respect the following rights statement:

The publisher and rights holder of this work is OBIS-SEAMAP. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC-BY-NC 4.0) License.

GBIF Registration

This resource has been registered with GBIF, and assigned the following GBIF UUID: 97a775fe-7e13-43bc-a6de-af9218b1dd93.  OBIS-SEAMAP publishes this resource, and is itself registered in GBIF as a data publisher endorsed by Ocean Biodiversity Information System.

Keywords

Occurrence,Vessels,Sightings; Observation; Occurrence

External data

The resource data is also available in other formats

OBIS-SEAMAP Dataset Page http://seamap.env.duke.edu/dataset/774 UTF-8 Interactive map
FGDC Metadata http://seamap.env.duke.edu/dataset/774/xml UTF-8 XML

Contacts

Caterina Lanfredi
  • Owner
  • Originator
  • Point Of Contact
Primary contact
Tethys Research Institute
Giuseppe Notarbartolo di Sciara
  • Owner
  • Originator
  • Point Of Contact
Primary contact
Tethys Research Institute
OBIS-SEAMAP
  • Metadata Provider
  • Distributor
Marine Geospatial Ecology Lab, Duke University
A328 LSRC building
27708 Durham
NC
US
ACCOBAMS and WDCS
  • Originator
The Agreement on the Conservation of Cetaceans of the Black Sea, Mediterranean Sea and contiguous Atlantic Area (ACCOBAMS) and Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society (WDCS)

Geographic Coverage

Mediterranean,Italy,cetacean distribution

Bounding Coordinates South West [10.287, -67.342], North East [45.633, 22.797]

Taxonomic Coverage

Scientific names are based on the Integrated Taxonomic Information System (ITIS).

Order Cetacea (cetaceans)
Family Delphinidae (dolphins), Delphinidae (dolphins), Hyperoodontidae
Genus Balaenoptera (baleen whales), Mesoplodon (beaked whales), Stenella (spinner dolphins)
Species Balaenoptera acutorostrata (Minke Whale), Balaenoptera borealis (Sei Whale), Balaenoptera edeni (Eden's whale), Balaenoptera physalus (Fin Whale), Delphinus delphis (Short-beaked Common Dolphin), Globicephala macrorhynchus (Short-finned Pilot Whale), Globicephala melas (Long-finned Pilot Whale), Grampus griseus (Risso's Dolphin), Kogia breviceps (Pygmy Sperm Whale), Megaptera novaeangliae (Humpback Whale), Mesoplodon bidens (Sowerby's Beaked Whale), Mesoplodon densirostris (Blainville's Beaked Whale), Mesoplodon europaeus (Gervais' Beaked Whale), Peponocephala electra (Melon-headed Whale), Physeter macrocephalus (Sperm Whale), Pseudorca crassidens (False Killer Whale), Sousa teuszii (Atlantic Humpback Dolphin), Stenella attenuata (Pantropical Spotted Dolphin), Stenella clymene (Clymene Dolphin), Stenella coeruleoalba (Striped Dolphin), Stenella frontalis (Atlantic Spotted Dolphin), Stenella longirostris (Spinner Dolphin), Tursiops truncatus (Common Bottlenose Dolphin), Ziphius cavirostris (Cuvier's Beaked Whale)

Temporal Coverage

Start Date / End Date 1986-07-11 / 2012-11-22

Project Data

No Description available

Title Tethys Research Institute shipboard survey cetacean sightings 1986-2012
Funding NA

The personnel involved in the project:

Caterina Lanfredi
  • Owner
Giuseppe Notarbartolo di Sciara
  • Owner

Sampling Methods

NA

Study Extent NA

Method step description:

  1. NA

Collection Data

Collection Name zd_774
Collection Identifier zd_774
Parent Collection Identifier OBIS-SEAMAP

Additional Metadata

marine, harvested by iOBIS

Purpose Founded in 1986, the Tethys Research Institute is a private non-profit organization specializing in cetacean research. Tethys has generated one of the largest datasets on Mediterranean cetaceans and contributed over 300 scientific publications. Tethys aims to protect the Mediterranean biodiversity by promoting the adoption of a precautionary approach for the management of natural resources. The work carried out by Tethys strives to prevent the decline of marine species and to encourage sustainable use of the marine environment. Tethys first conceived and proposed the creation a Marine Reserve in the Corso-Ligurian Basin, the “Pelagos Sanctuary.” Several internationally renowned institutions have emphasized the importance of the Sanctuary, including the World Conservation Union (IUCN), the Bonn Convention on migratory species, and the newly-born Agreement on the Conservation of Cetaceans of the Mediterranean Sea, Black Sea and Contiguous Atlantic Areas (ACCOBAMS). The Sanctuary has also been added to the list of Specially Protected Areas of Mediterranean Importance (SPAMI), created at the Barcelona Convention in 1999. This makes the Ligurian Sea Cetacean Sanctuary the first and only high seas protected area in the world. Moreover, based primarily on data collected by the Tethys Research Institute, a Dolphin Reserve was formally established in Losinj, Croatia in 2006. Research methods utilized by Tethys include the use of remote sensing and telemetry data, the combined use of laser range-finding binoculars and GPS to record the movements of whales, population studies based on distance sampling and photographic capture-recapture, bioacoustics research, behavioral sampling, remote collection of biopsy samples for genetic and toxicological analyses, and historical studies. The Institute holds vast photographic archives of cetacean images that have enabled the identification of over 1,500 individuals of eight Mediterranean species. Tethys Research Institute has involved in its expeditions thousands of people from all over the world, and has developed a remarkable cetacean research and conservation network. Tethys has been conducting its research and conservation activities thanks to support received from national and international organizations. Tethys is partner to the UNEP's Agreement on the Conservation of Cetaceans in the Black Sea, Mediterranean Sea and Contiguous Atlantic Area (ACCOBAMS). The Italian Ministry of the Environment funded various cetacean research and conservation activities carried out by the Institute. The UNEP's Regional Activity Centre for Specially Protected Areas (RAC-SPA), the Earthwatch Institute, OceanCare and The Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society WDCS have been providing support to specific projects conducted by Tethys in the context of a long-term collaboration.
Alternative Identifiers http://ipt.env.duke.edu/resource?r=zd_774