Original provider: OceanCare
Dataset credits: Silvia Frey, OceanCare
Purpose: OceanCare is a non-profit and non-governmental organization founded in 1989 in Switzerland. The organization is dedicated to the protection of marine mammals and the conservation of the marine environment. The association works at national and international level in the areas of whaling, industrial fishing, environmental changes, seal hunting, dolphin captivity, and cetacean research. OceanCare has the Special Consultative Status with the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations and is a partner of the UNEP/CMS Agreement on the Conservation of Cetaceans in the Black Sea, Mediterranean Sea and Contiguous Atlantic Area (ACCOBAMS). With this cetacean monitoring project OceanCare provides long-term data on cetacean abundance in the Mediterranean Sea.
This dataset comprises the work carried out by OceanCare in the waters east and north of Sicily, Italy between 2016-2019. The project was dedicated to survey cetacean populations in these waters. Cetacean spatial and temporal distribution is studied using boat-based surveys.