Original provider: NOAA Southwest Fisheries Science Center (SWFSC) Dataset credits: Marine Mammal and Turtle Division, Southwest Fisheries Science Center, NMFS, NOAA Abstract: The 1997 Sperm Whale Abundance and Population Structures (SWAPS) line-transect survey was designed to census sperm whales near the end of their breeding season in the North Pacific Ocean from the west coast of the U.S. out to 158 degrees west longitude. This survey was conducted by the NOAA Southwest Fisheries Science Center aboard the NOAA ship <i>McArthur</i> for a total of approximately 12,000 kilometers surveyed from early March to early June 1997. This dataset provides the time-date and geographical coordinates, by species/stock, of all cetaceans detected during the survey, as well as the daily and intra-daily start and end points of the line-transect survey.