IMIS

The sightings contained in this dataset were obtained during surveys designed to photo-identify blue whales in the Sea of Cortez during their peak abundance in February and March. The surveys were conducted between 1984 and 2007 from 25' fiberglass boats in sea state less than 3-4 and designed to maximize the number of blue whale Ids. Although focusing primarily on the areas where blue whales are most commonly sighted, they also covered most of the area accessible by boat during a day trip at least once per field season. The sightings of Balaenoptera edeni were recognized as Bryde's whale by the data provider. The ITIS taxonomy database gives it the common name of Eden's whale. Thus, in our system it shows Eden's whale instead of Bryde's whale as a common name. There may seem to be duplicated records in the dataset. However, records are different, near-by sightings (within 100-200 m) recorded while the researchers were conducting photo-ID activities and for which an exact position could not be obtained. Thus, their positions were approximated as that of the animal/group the researchers were working with at that time. The records without coordinates were removed.