European Ocean Biodiversity Information System

The objective of SCANS-II was to estimate small cetacean abundance in the North Sea and European Atlantic continental shelf waters, and to allow the assessment and management of bycatch and other anthropogenic threats through the development of improved methods for monitoring and a robust management framework, thus defining a clear course of action to allow populations to recover to and maintain favourable conservation status. The project followed the SCANS project in 1994 and provides an opportunity to observe how distribution and abundance has changed in the intervening decade. In addition to the area surveyed during SCANS-I, this project also covers continental shelf waters to the west of Britain, Ireland, France, Spain and Portugal. The northern boundary will be approximately 62° N and the southern limit will be the boundary of the region covered by the Agreement on the Conservation of Cetaceans of the Black Sea, Mediterranean Sea and contiguous Atlantic Area (ACCOBAMS). To estimate absolute abundance, a combination of shipboard and aerial surveys was carried out in July 2005. Both visual and acoustic survey methods were used to detect cetaceans on the shipboard surveys.