02

Stock No. 003-020-00119-0 / Catalog No. C 55.13: NMFS CIRC-396

PREFACE

In March 1972, the Naval Undersea Center (NUC), San Diego, Calif. in
cooperation with the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), Tiburon,
Calif. published a photographic field guide--_The Whales, Dolphins and
Porpoises of the Eastern North Pacific. A Guide to Their Identification
in the Water_, by S. Leatherwood, W.E. Evans, and D.W. Rice (NUC TP
282). This guide was designed to assist the layman in identifying the
cetaceans he encountered in that area and was intended for use in two
ongoing whale observer programs, NUC's Whale Watch and NMFS's Platforms
of Opportunity. The rationale of these programs was that since
oceanographers, commercial and sport fishermen, naval personnel,
commercial seamen, pleasure boaters, and coastal aircraft pilots
together canvas large areas of the oceans which scientists specializing
in whales (cetologists) have time and funds to survey only occasionally,
training those persons in species identification and asking them to
report their sightings back to central data centers could help
scientists more clearly understand distribution, migration, and seasonal
variations in abundance of cetacean species. For such a program to work,
a usable field guide is a requisite. Because the many publications on
the whales, dolphins, and porpoises of this region were either too
technical in content or too limited in geographical area or species
covered to be of use in field identification, and because conventional
scientific or taxonomic groupings of the animals are often not helpful
in field identification, the photographic field guide took a different
approach. Instead of being placed into their scientific groups, species
were grouped together on the basis of similarities in appearance during
the brief encounters typical at sea. Photographs of the animals in their
natural environment, supplemented by drawings and descriptions or tables
distinguishing the most similar species, formed the core of the guide.

Despite deficiencies in the first effort and the inherent difficulties
of positively identifying many of the cetacean species at sea, the
results obtained from the programs have been encouraging. Many seafarers
who had previously looked with disinterest or ignorance on the animals
they encountered became good critical observers and found pleasure in
the contribution they were making. The potential for the e