Data on macrobenthic prey from an essential western gray whale feeding habitat, Sakhalin Island, Russia, 2001-2015

Arny L Blanchard; Natalia Demchenko; Lise A M Aerts; Sergei Yazvenko; Victor Ivin; Ilya Shcherbakov; H Rodger Melton

doi:10.1016/j.dib.2019.103968

Data on macrobenthic prey from an essential western gray whale feeding habitat, Sakhalin Island, Russia, 2001-2015

Data Brief. 2019 May 24:25:103968. doi: 10.1016/j.dib.2019.103968. eCollection 2019 Aug.

Authors

Arny L Blanchard¹, Natalia Demchenko², Lise A M Aerts³, Sergei Yazvenko⁴, Victor Ivin⁵, Ilya Shcherbakov^{2

6}, H Rodger Melton⁷

Affiliations

¹ Blanchard Ecological, North Pole, AK, USA.
² National Scientific Center of Marine Biology FEB RAS, Russia.
³ LAMA Ecological, Dallas, TX, USA.
⁴ LGL Limited, Sydney, British Columbia, CA, USA.
⁵ L.S. Berg State Research Institute on Lake and River Fisheries, Saint Petersburg, Russia.
⁶ Far Eastern Federal University, Vladivostok, Russia.
⁷ ExxonMobil, Houston, TX, USA.

Abstract

Data in this article presents data (means and standard deviations) for prey biomass from essential feeding habitats for the endangered western gray whale. Prey include Actinopterygii (primarily the sand lance Ammodytes hexapterus), Amphipoda, Bivalvia, Cumacea, Isopoda, and Polychaeta. Total prey biomass (sum of the six prey groups) is also presented. Statistical analyses document spatial and temporal trends in prey biomass concentrations. Multivariate analyses using canonical correspondence analysis characterize relationships of potential drivers of community changes.