PICEAS (Pacific Islands Cetacean Ecosystem Assessment Survey) 2005 was an ecosystem survey in the U.S. Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) waters of Palmyra and Johnston Atoll and adjacent waters south of Hawaii where Hawaiian long-line fishing occurs.

This study was conducted in Mexico aboard the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) research ship McArthur during two months in summer/fall 1995. The primary purpose of this research was to learn how to better estimate the abundance of long-diving whales during ship line-transect surveys. These whale species, including beaked whales and dwarf and pygmy sperm whales, dive for such long periods of time that there is a high probability that they will never surface within the visual range of observers searching from a moving survey vessel with 25X binoculars. The project was called CADDIS (Cetacean Acoustic Detection and Dive Interval Studies) and focused on two potential approaches to improve abundance estimates: 1) acoustic detection of diving animals, and 2) collecting dive interval data on those species to serve as a basis for a model-based abundance correction factor. The CADDIS research was conducted primarily in the southern Gulf of California, Mexico. This area was chosen for two main reasons: prior surveys showed the area to have a very high density of small long-diving whales of the genera Mesoplodon, Ziphius and Kogia (Mangels and Gerrodette 1994), and the area has consistently calm seas which enables dive intervals to be observed and accurately measured. The timing of the survey was similarly chosen as the season with the consistently lowest winds in the southern Gulf.

In 1997, the Southwest Fisheries Science Center (SWFSC) conducted a survey designed to estimate the abundance of vaquita, the Gulf of California harbor porpoise (Phocoena sinus). This was a joint project between the fisheries agencies of the United States and Mexico.

This survey focused on two species of common dolphin: the short-beaked common dolphin, Delphinus delphis, and the long-beaked common dolphin, Delphinus capensis , off southern California, USA and Baja California, Mexico.

A marine mammal survey focused on the Aleutian Islands in 1994.

The California Current Cetacean and Ecosystem Assessment Survey (CalCurCEAS) is a marine mammal assessment survey of the U.S. West Coast waters. Similar research in this geographic area was conducted under the name of ORCAWALE (for Oregon, California, and Washington Line-transect Experiment) in previous years.

The NORTHPAC 2002 cruise was a marine mammal assessment survey of the waters of the Bering Sea.

The Hawaiian Islands Cetacean and Ecosystem Assessment Survey, called HICEAS, is a marine mammal assessment survey of the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) of Hawaiian waters out to a distance of approximately 200 nautical miles. The 2010 survey was a collaborative research effort between NOAA Southwest Fisheries Science Center (SWFSC) and NOAA Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center (PIFSC).

The 1997 Sperm Whale Abundance and Population Structures (SWAPS) line-transect survey was designed to census sperm whales near the end of their breeding season in the North Pacific Ocean from the west coast of the continental U.S. out to an area near the Hawaiian Islands. This survey was conducted by the NOAA Southwest Fisheries Science Center (SWFSC) aboard the NOAA ship McArthur for a total of approximately 12,000 kilometers surveyed from early March to early June 1997.

Ship survey of cetaceans in waters off the coast of California.