Global coverage of cetacean line transect surveys and the detection of trends in abundance

Speaker: Dr Catriona Harris (CREEM)

Abstract

Catriona Harris, Becci Jewell and Nicola Quick will give an overview of three manuscripts that have resulted from a database of line-transect surveys and associated abundance estimates, compiled by CREEM and SMRU Ltd over the last 5 years.  We will describe the taxonomic, spatial, temporal and methodological distribution of line transect surveys between 1980 and 2005, focussing on ~50 species of interest.  We will then describe analyses that were carried out to determine whether trends in abundance could be detected for any species when we accounted for all of the factors mentioned above.  Finally, we will briefly discuss the overlap between available data and marine development activities.