NAMSC (North Atlantic and Mediterranean Sperm Whale Catalogue)

 

General Information




Abstract

The North Atlantic and Mediterranean Sperm Whale Catalogue (NAMSC) is the product of a group of cooperating sperm whale researchers. The catalogue contains photographic material of sperm whales, mainly of flukes. A CD containing the version 1.0 of NAMSC was published in 1999 by the International Fund of Animal Welfare (IFAW) and the Centre of Environmental Science, Leiden University (CML).

NAMSC contains 1927 photographs of flukes that allow individual identification. A computer program suggested 487 matches and it was concluded that the 1927 photographs represent 1640 individuals.

The following files are presented here for downloading:

  • matches.txt: a list of all files that the computer program suggested as representing the same individual; the matches are clustered and numbered per cluster of matching photos.
  • match*.jpg: the photographs of matching clusters, compressed into the zip-file matches.zip.
  • index.txt: the list connecting a filename to a matching cluster.

The text files can be read by any editor or wordprocessor. To see the match*.jpg files, any simple image viewer will suffice. A program like PKzip or Zipcentral is needed to decompress the zip-file.

To find matching flukes to a given photograph, if you have access to the NAMSC:
1. find the name under which it is stored in the NAMSC if you are the contributor, this is the name you gave it
2. find the relevant match number in the file index.txt
3a. find the matching cluster in the file matches.txt, or alternatively
3b. see the matching cluster in the file match*.jpg.

For details, comments and questions, please contact
huele@cml.leidenuniv.nl

Matching was done by contour extracting, wavelet transform of the extracted contours and cross-correlating all transforms of the contours. The algorithm was implemented as a Matlab program. Matlab, the Matlab image processing toolbox and the Matlab signal processing toolbox are needed to run it.

NAMSC is based on contributions from the following:
Alexandros Frantzis
Alnitak Project, Spain
Andenes Cetacean Research Unit, Norway
Centro Interdisciplinare Di Bioacustica, Italy
CML, Leiden University, Netherlands
Dalhousie University, Canada
Department of Oceanography and Fisheries, Azores
Groupe de Recherche sur les Cetaces, France
Gulf-Cet, USA
International Fund for Animal Welfare
Michel André
Shetland Sea Mammal Group, Scotland
Tethys Research Institute, Italy
Whale Watch Azores

The copyright of all material stays with the contributors.

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