Translating dates

[Emily Saunders]

Hello,

I have a question for more experienced translators.  I've been handed a 
couple of papers to translate from Russian to English about whales.  
They are, I believe, to be delivered at an upcoming conference or 
consortium or some such in Alaska.  They contain tables with dates of 
whale sightings and periods of observations.  These dates are naturally 
in the Russian format such as:  2.05 and  5.06-7.11, which Americans 
could (would?) erroneously read as February 5 and June 5 - July 11 if 
left in their current format.

A suggestion I've received is to switch the numbers, but put an 
American slash "/" between them instead of the period to make it clear 
that this is American format.  My gut, however, says to spell them out 
(May 2 and June 5 - Nov 7) since simply switching the order would be 
potentially confusing for Russians.  This will take up more column 
width in the tables, which is a little awkward, but essentially doable. 
  Or should I just leave them be because the scientific community out 
there follows the European norm anyway (sort of like kilos and 
celsius)?  If there is any set norm as to how this is dealt with, I'd 
be very grateful to know.

Regards,

Emily Saunders

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