TWM quadrant sightings by month 1999-2022

Please contact the WCRO for more information about data distribution.

https://noaa.maps.arcgis.com/home/item.html?id=8f779d13d31449adb963837511bd5b95

The primary data source in the SRKW Sighting Compilation is The Whale Museum's (TWM) sighting archives (TWM-SA) of year-round public sightings reported to The Whale Hotline or directly provided to Museum staff through several different channels. These channels include sighting compilations from the following: affiliated naturalists, scientists, commercial whale watch vessels, Orca Network email postings (www.orcanetwork.org), hydrophone detections from listeners to the Salish Sea Hydrophone Network (http://seasound.org and http://www.orcasound.org), and reliable reports from independent investigators and whale watchers. Other more systematic data sources collected during the summer season include: Dr. Robert Otis' longitudinal dataset from Lime Kiln Point State Park, Soundwatch Boater Education and Monitoring Program's 30-minute samples during on-water vessel patrols; and information from SPOT (satellite personal GPS) systems used by various whale watch and research boats from 2008-2018. A final source includes SRKW sightings via collaboration with Ocean Wise's Coastal Ocean Research Institute's B.C. Cetaceans Sightings Network (BCCSN), a primarily opportunistic sightings database from 1975-2022.

1. Take all sightings from the whale museum database for years 1999-2022

2. Of all sightings in those years, remove those specified as transients, “not orcas”, Northern residents

3. Only keep sightings where the best guess at pod/whales identity contains one of the following - J|K|L|SR|SRKW|SWKW (all potential entries that indicate Southern Residents) and keep sightings only specified to “orca” or “orcas”

4. Of these sightings, look at sightings without a whale museum specified quadrant but with other location identifier (lat/long specified or fish area) to see where they land. NOTE: the whale museum includes a “fisharea” for sightings which are recreational fishing areas; we want sightings in commercial fishing areas. So, “Fisharea” recorded by the whale museum are the US recreational areas not commercial so larger than the management areas we’re looking at. Also, if they have a fish area with a “C”, this is not US commercial fishing areas that have C (like 12C, 13C, etc), these are Canada areas 12, 13 with a “C” for Canada

5. Filter to get number of “unique sightings days” - in other words, for every 4 sightings that have the same day, month, year, quadrant, and marine area, keep only 1.

6. Count the number of unique sightings in each quadrant for each month over the entire range of years (1999-2022)