72522 Data Set Published / External 72521 Southern Resident Killer Whale (SRKW) Sightings Project Completed 2024-01-03 The primary goal of the Southern Resident Killer Whale (SRKW) Sightings Dashboard is to provide a resource for individuals and organizations to determine appropriate marine mammal protections for SRKWs when constructing projects throughout the Puget Sound. Specifically, in conjunction with the known action area of a project, it can help determine whether a marine mammal monitoring plan (MMMP) is needed that includes orcas. The National Marine Fisheries Service uses this tool to determine necessary MMMPs for Endangered Species Act consultations, including projects under the Salish Sea Nearshore Programmatic Biological Opinion. The Southern Resident Killer Whale (SRKW) Sightings feature layer is the data source for the SRKW Sightings Map and Dashboard. All reported SRKW sightings are assigned to 1 of 445 quadrants and are summarized by quadrant as the total number of unique sighting days per month and during 1999-2022. The source of the database containing all orca sightings is The Whale Museum (TWM) Orca Sightings. Theme ISO 19115 Topic Category biota Theme ISO 19115 Topic Category environment Theme ISO 19115 Topic Category location Theme ISO 19115 Topic Category oceans Theme Puget Sound,biota Theme SRKW Theme Salish Sea Theme killer whales Theme monthly sightings Theme orcas Theme sightings Theme southern resident killer whale Spatial Puget Sound Spatial West Coast Data Set None Planned Map (digital) The Whale Museum (TWM), National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) Protected Resources Division, NMFS Central Puget Sound 72545 Published / External Data Table Yes SRKW Sightings; Source: TWM 1 OBJECTID n/a No No Active Internal feature number.; Source: Esri Sequential unique whole numbers that are automatically generated. 2 Shape n/a No No Active Feature geometry.; Source: ESRI Coordinates defining the features. 3 Quad n/a No No Active The Whale Museum Quadrats; Source: TWM 1 to 445 4 Fish_Area n/a No No Active Recreational fishing areas; Source: Pacific Fisheries Management Areas USA Fish Areas 1-13 and CA Fish Areas 14C-29C 5 Shape_Length n/a No No Active Length of feature in internal units.; Source: Esri Positive real numbers that are automatically generated. 6 Shape_Area n/a No No Active Area of feature in internal units squared.; Source: ESRI Positive real numbers that are automatically generated. 7 JAN n/a No No Active Sum over all years (1999-2022) of unique sightings for the month of January.; Source: TWM Integer value representing sum of unique sightings 8 FEB n/a No No Active Sum over all years (1999-2022) of unique sightings for the month of February.; Source: TWM Integer value representing sum of unique sightings 9 MAR n/a No No Active Sum over all years (1999-2022) of unique sightings for the month of March.; Source: TWM Integer value representing sum of unique sightings 10 APR n/a No No Active Sum over all years (1999-2022) of unique sightings for the month of April.; Source: TWM Integer value representing sum of unique sightings 11 MAY n/a No No Active Sum over all years (1999-2022) of unique sightings for the month of May.; Source: TWM Integer value representing sum of unique sightings 12 JUN n/a No No Active Sum over all years (1999-2022) of unique sightings for the month of June.; Source: TWM Integer value representing sum of unique sightings 13 JUL n/a No No Active Sum over all years (1999-2022) of unique sightings for the month of July.; Source: TWM Integer value representing sum of unique sightings 14 AUG n/a No No Active Sum over all years (1999-2022) of unique sightings for the month of August.; Source: TWM Integer value representing sum of unique sightings 15 SEP n/a No No Active Sum over all years (1999-2022) of unique sightings for the month of September.; Source: TWM Integer value representing sum of unique sightings 16 OCT n/a No No Active Sum over all years (1999-2022) of unique sightings for the month of October.; Source: TWM Integer value representing sum of unique sightings 17 NOV n/a No No Active Sum over all years (1999-2022) of unique sightings for the month of November.; Source: TWM Integer value representing sum of unique sightings 18 DEC n/a No No Active Sum over all years (1999-2022) of unique sightings for the month of December.; Source: TWM Integer value representing sum of unique sightings 19 TOTAL n/a No No Active Sum over all years (1999-2022) of unique sightings.; Source: TWM Integer value representing sum of unique sightings Data Steward 2023-09-06 Person Rudh, Nissa nissa.rudh@noaa.gov 1201 NE Lloyd Blvd Portland OR 97232 360-701-9699 Distributor 2024-01-03 Organization West Coast Regional Office WCRO 501 West Ocean Blvd Long Beach CA 90802-4213 https://www.westcoast.fisheries.noaa.gov/ Please contact the WCRO for more information about data distribution. Metadata Contact 2023-09-06 Person Horsman, Jennifer jennifer.horsman@noaa.gov 719-966-4477 Point of Contact 2023-09-06 Person Rudh, Nissa nissa.rudh@noaa.gov 1201 NE Lloyd Blvd Portland OR 97232 360-701-9699 Publication Date Puget Sound, Salish Sea, SRKW Sightings -124.339465 -122.165596 49.471218 47.011643 Range 1999-01-01T00:00:00+00:00 2022-12-31T00:00:00+00:00 Projected EPSG:32610 WGS 84 / UTM zone 10N World Geodetic System 1984 WGS 84 6378137 298.257223563 WGS 84 UTM zone 10N Transverse Mercator Latitude of natural origin 0° 0' 0" N Longitude of natural origin 123° 0' 0" W Scale factor at natural origin 0.9996 False easting 500000 metre False northing 0 metre 1 Easting E metre east 2 Northing N metre north Unclassified *** No Warranty*** The user assumes the entire risk related to its use of these data. National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) is providing these data "as is," and NMFS disclaims any and all warranties, whether express or implied, including (without limitation) any implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. No warranty expressed or implied is made regarding the accuracy or utility of the data on any other system or for general or scientific purposes, nor shall the act of distribution constitute any such warranty. It is strongly recommended that careful attention be paid to the contents of the metadata file associated with these data to evaluate dataset limitations, restrictions or intended use. In no event will NMFS be liable to you or to any third party for any direct, indirect, incidental, consequential, special or exemplary damages or lost profit resulting from any use or misuse of this data. https://noaa.maps.arcgis.com/home/item.html?id=8f779d13d31449adb963837511bd5b95 2024-01-03 Organization West Coast Regional Office TWM_SRKW_sightings https://noaa.maps.arcgis.com/home/item.html?id=8f779d13d31449adb963837511bd5b95 2024-01-03T00:00:00 ESRI File Geodatabase Microsoft Windows 10 Version 10.0 (Build 19044) ; Esri ArcGIS 13.2.2.49743 No missing featuresSpecification Title2024-01-03T00:00:00Each polygon compared to original feature class.12024-01-03T00:00:00 The Whale Museum Southern Resident Killer Whale Sightings 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 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) 2024-01-03T00:00:00 Person Rudh, Nissa nissa.rudh@noaa.gov 1201 NE Lloyd Blvd Portland OR 97232 360-701-9699 72545 Entity gov.noaa.nmfs.inport:72522 Jennifer Horsman 2024-04-26T17:56:37 SysAdmin InPortAdmin 2026-08-19T18:33:57 2024-04-30 West Coast Regional Office WCRO 501 West Ocean Blvd Long Beach CA 90802-4213 https://www.westcoast.fisheries.noaa.gov/ 1001 Public No No 2024-04-30 1 Year 2025-04-30