Survey of the abundance and distribution of cetaceans off Costa Rica's Pacific coast

 Description:

The data presented here were obtained from a survey investigating the abundance and distribution of cetaceans off Costa Rica's Pacific coast in January 2022. Surveys were carried out in accordance with the survey protocol set out by the NGO ORCA. Briefly, surveys involved a port and starboard observer at all times. The observers scanned an area from 90^o on their own side to 10^o on the opposite side, totalling an area of 100^o each. Scanning took place visually and using binoculars. Regular rotations between members of the survey team took place to prevent fatigue. Effort, weather, GPS and sightings data were recorded throughout the duration of the survey, meaning both presence and absence data were recorded. The ship did not deviate its course in response to sightings. In total, over 32 hours of surveys were conducted over a period of 10 days, covering the majority of the Pacific Coast of Costa Rica. A total of 206 individuals from 4 different species were sighted during the survey. Surveys were conducted from the tall ship Pelican of London (owned by Seas Your Future) by experienced surveyors.

Dataset:

The dataste consists of 3 .csv files and 2 .kmz files. The 'Observations_Effort_Sightings' .csv file contains all effort, weather and sighting data whilst on-effort. The 'Incidental_Sightings' .csv file contains a list of incidental sightings made whilst off-effort. The 'Key' .csv files describes the abbreviations used in the other two .csv files. The .kmz files contain tracks of the ship's route during the duration of the survey. The 'Track_Points' .kmz file contains the points along the ship's track, and the 'Track_Smoothed' .kmz file contains a smoothed version of the track. Please note that the track includes time spent off-effort. Please contact the authors if you have any questions about the dataset.

Acknowledgements:

Thanks goes to Seas Your Future and Brasenose College, University of Oxford for funding this work. We would also like to acknowledge the crew of the Pelican of London for their support throughout the survey, particularly the Captain Ben Wheatley and First Mate Tamsin Lambert. We would further like to thank Dr Charlotte Braungardt for her assistance with planning and Hannah Gibbs, Megan Derrick, Sari Ponnet, Jeremy DeMoss, Yasmin Deter, and Emily Murphy Gray for their help with data collection.