Porpoise Observation Database (NRM)
type: Dataset
description: This data set contains observations of dead or alive harbor porpoises made by the public, mostly around the Swedish coast. A few observations are from Norwegian, Danish, Finish and German waters. Each observation of harbor porpoise is verified at the Swedish Museum of Natural History before it is approved and published on the web. The verification consists of controlling the accuracy of number of animals sighted, if the coordinates are correct and if pictures are attached that they really show a porpoise and not another species. If any of these three seem unlikely, the reporter is contacted and asked more detailed questions. The report is approved or denied depending on the answers given. Pictures and movies that can’t be uploaded to the database due to size problems are saved at the museum server and marked with the identification number given by the database. By the end of the year the data is submitted to HELCOM who then summarize all the member state’s data from the Baltic proper to the Kattegat basin. The porpoise is one of the smallest tooth whales in the world and the only whale species that breeds in Swedish waters. They are to be found in temperate water in the northern hemisphere where they live in small groups of 1-3 individuals. The females give birth to a calf in the summer months which then suckles for about 10 months before it is left on its own and she has a new calf. The porpoises around Sweden are divided in to three groups that don’t mix very often. The North Sea population is found on the west coast in Skagerrak down to the Falkenberg area. The Belt Sea population is to be found a bit north of Falkenberg down to Blekinge archipelago in the Baltic. The Baltic proper population is the smallest population and consists only of a few hundred animals and is considered as an endangered sub species. They are most commonly found from the Blekinge archipelago up to Åland Sea with a hot spot area south of Gotland at Hoburg’s bank and the Mid-Sea bank. The P…
contributor: Linnea Cervin
  type: Person
  affiliation: Swedish Museum of Natural History
creative work status: completed
  type: DefinedTerm
  in defined term set: http://publications.europa.eu/resource/authority/dataset-status
  term code: COMPLETED
creator: Linnea Cervin
  type: Person
  affiliation: Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
date modified: 2026-08-23
date published: 2010-05-03
language: English
keywords: Biological Sciences
  type: DefinedTerm
  term code: 106
keywords: Occurrence
keywords: Observation
keywords: OCCURRENCE
license: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
publisher: Swedish Museum of Natural History
version: 0

PropertyValue
property ID: DOI
value: 10.15468/YRXFXP

PropertyValue
property ID: UUID

Swedish Museum of Natural History
type: Organization

Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
type: Organization

English
type: Language
alternate name: eng