NEFSC Right Whale Survey
NOAA Northeast Fisheries Science Center (NEFSC)

NOAA Northeast Fisheries Science Center (NEFSC)

The North Atlantic Right Whale Sighting Survey (NARWSS) is a NOAA Fisheries program which locates and records the seasonal distribution of right whales off the northeastern United States.

N/A

Data correction 2/8/11: Records with LETU sightings were incorrectly associated with Softshell turtles (ITIS TSN: 173845) and was corrected as leatherback sea turtles (ITIS TSN: 173843)

Overview

Attributes described below represent those in the original dataset provided by the provider.
Only minimum required attributes are visible and downlodable online. Other attributes may be obtained upon provider's permission unless otherwise noteded below.

This section explains attributes included in the original dataset. OBIS-SEAMAP restricts the attributes available to the public to date/time, lat/lon and species names/counts only. Should you need other attributes described here, you are encouraged to contact the data provider.

Attributes in dataset provided

Attribute (table column)	Description
oid	Unique ID number (generated by SEAMAP)
obs_date	Date of observation
obs_time	Time of observation
latitude	Latitude in decimal degrees
longitude	Longitude in decimal degrees
sp_obs	Species observed
sp_tsn	ITIS taxonomic serial number. This field added by OBIS-SEAMAP
obs_count	Number of animals
platform	Platform
source
protocol
plane	Type of plane
event_number	Chronological event numbers for a particular survey.
flight_type	Survey type code. Code descriptions available upon request.
legtype	Survey line type code. Code descriptions available upon request.
legstage	Survey watch stage code. Code descriptions available upon request.
psb_legstage	Survey watch stage code. Code descriptions available upon request.
altitude	Altitude of the aircraft (feet)
heading	Platform heading (degrees)
speed	Platform speed (knots)
sst_c	Sea Surface Temperature (Celsius)
visibilty_l_code
visibilty_r_code
visibilty_code
visibilty_nm	Visibility (nautical miles)
beaufort	Beaufort sea state
cloud_code	Cloud cover code. Code descriptions available upon request.
cloud_percent	Cloud cover as a percentage.
glare_l	Glare of the left bubble window observer
glare_r	Glare of the right bubble window observer
quality_l	Quality of the left bubble window observer
quality_r	Quality of the right bubble window observer
wx
sighting_number	Sighting number (reset each flight)
id_reliability	Reliability code for species ID. Code descriptions available upon request.
calves	The number of calves observed
confidnc	Confidence in the species identification reliability
bearing
distance
ship_heading
relative_heading
actual_heading
observer	Initials of sighting observer
obs_position	Position of sighting observer
angle	Declination angle (0_90 degrees) of sighting
cue	Sighting cue
b1_final_code	Behavior code. Code descriptions available upon request.
b2_final_code	Behavior code. Code descriptions available upon request.
b3_final_code	Behavior code. Code descriptions available upon request.
b4_final_code	Behavior code. Code descriptions available upon request.
b5_final_code	Behavior code. Code descriptions available upon request.
photos	Is a photo taken: yes=2 no=1
ship_contact
effort_comments	Comments related to effort and weather
sighting_comments	Comments related to the sighting
edit1	Changes made by the 1st editor
edit2	Changes made by the 2nd editor
edit3	Changes made by the 3rd editor
misc_edit1	Changes made by an editor
misc_edit2	Changes made by an editor
misc_edit3	Changes made by an editor
misc_edit4	Changes made by an editor