IMIS

The survey was conducted on the NOAA DeHavilland Twin Otter DHC-6, Series 300 aircraft from 19 July to 16 August 2002. The flights were based out of Otis Airbase from 19 July to 2 August 2002, and based out of Hancock County/Bar Harbor Airport in Trenton, Maine from 2 August to 16 August 2002. The southern border of the study area was south of Long Island, New York, the northern border was in the Bay of Fundy north of St. John, New Brunswick, Canada, the western border was the United States coastline, and the eastern border was about 64.5 deg W (west of Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada). The primary objective of this survey is to determine the feasibility of the circle-back method that estimates abundance of cetaceans and turtles, which includes an estimate of g(0), the probability of detecting a group on the track line. First, the practical issues of conducting the survey in the field will be assessed, and then the analytical issues will be investigated after the data are collected. The secondary objective is to estimate the abundance of animals using this new method. The third objective is to collect sea surface temperature information during the survey to be used to describe the habitat of the different cetacean and turtle species.