HICEAS 2010 – a NOAA research cruise around the Hawaiian Islands

Speaker: Cornelia Oedekoven (CREEM)

Abstract

Last year in the fall, the Southwest Fisheries Science Center/NOAA, La Jolla conducted a survey to estimate the abundance and distribution of cetaceans around the Hawaiian Islands including the entire island chain and surrounding waters out to 200nm (the Hawaiian Economic Exclusive Zone). Two NOAA research vessels were used for this survey, the McArthur II (for about 4.5 months) and the Oscar Elton Sette (for about 2 months). This time I was part of the acoustics team on the McArthur II conducting line-transect surveys using passive acoustics methods. During my presentation I will talk about survey design, survey methods, equipment we used, and what we found.