Update 12/8

Here is a Picture of my Final Poster

Update 12/4

Here are my final maps. I decided to combine the maps for potential Whale Sighting areas and the actual Sighting density so that it would be easier to compare the two areas.

Update 11/25

This post is going to be relatively short. I have finished collecting data on all of the whale sightings for  the Hawaiian Islands and have finished mapping the points. I decided to end the data collection phase of this project in order to focus on the formatting and creation of my final poster. Anyways here are the final maps.

I'll post more on my actual poster and the actual data analysis once thanksgiving has passed. Also map detail such as a scale, north arrow, and Legend will be added over the break.

Update 11/18

No new updates this week. The maps are done for the most part so now I am beginning to focus on formatting my final poster presentation as well as some aesthetic touches to the maps. I do have one more idea for my project however. I have tons of data which I did not end up using so I've decided to use this data to see where we would theoretically see the most whale sightings. I would then compare these theoretical sites to the actual hotspots of whale activity that I have mapped so far. The criteria for these areas would be as follows:

• Water Depth of less than 1,000 feet.
• Water quality rating of AA
• Plenty of Food (Feeding Grounds)
• within a certain distance of a harbor or major shipping lane (actual distance to be determined)

Update 11/12/2014

After getting some feedback from the rest of my group members I have decided to focus the scope of my project to the main part of the Marine Sanctuary between Maui and Lanai. I have also changed the symbols the whale sightings so that they are easier to see. Here is my map as of Nov. 11, 2014

As of this posting:

•  8 whales have been seen in Water with a Quality rating of A.
• 6 Whales have been seen in water with a quality rating of AA.
• 2 Whales have no water quality data associated.

After preforming a density analysis there appear to be 3 main areas of concentration for whale sightings. I am looking for data on shipping lanes or whale feeding grounds that might be able to explain why these 3 points of interest are where they are. The map below shows the three main points of interest.

Update: 11/4/14

Well more whales sightings are being reported now that the end of the migration season has arrived so I'll be expecting to see a sharp increase in the amount of sightings reported. My main issue is still that I can only find data for sightings around the island of Maui. This isn't exactly surprising seeing as the main part of the marine sanctuary is off the coast of Maui but I was an still am really hoping to find more sightings for the other islands. I have found some data on the water quality of the channels between the islands but it is difficult to find other data to preform spatial analysis on. The main issue here is that most of the data I find focuses on just one of the islands (mainly Oahu), problem is most of the whale sightings are being reported near Maui. Anyway here is a draft of the map that I have so far.

The purple dots indicate whale sightings and the green outline is the boundary of the Marine Sanctuary

UPDATE: Week of 10/21

     I have found data layers for the ocean depth surrounding the Islands and the boundaries of the Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whales which is what I have mapped below. So far I have only one whale sighting but I have found plenty of dolphin sightings. I am debating whether or not I should include Dolphin Sightings data with my map or not. Also I can only find sighting data for the area between the islands of Maui and Lanai.

This is the first drafted map of what I have so far:

I have not included any data layers for any physical whale sightings as I only have one sighting to date.