SEFSC Southeast Cetacean Aerial Survey 1992
NOAA Southeast Fisheries Science Center

Southeast Fisheries Science Center, NOAA

Southeast Cetacean Aerial Survey, SECAS, was conducted in 1992 by NOAA Southeast Fisheries Science Center (SEFSC) to estimate Cetaceans abundance. This data set contains sightings of cetaceans and sea turtles as well as other species, including fish and shark, observed during the aerial survey. Marine mammals and sea turtles observed includes as follows. << Cetacean >> Atlantic spotted dolphin Northern right whale Standard Bottlenose dolphin << Sea Turtle >> Green turtle Hardshell Kemp's ridley Leatherback Loggerhead Survey's transects information is available in 'SECAS92Efforts.' Visual representation of this data set will be provided in the forms of ESRI's coverage and shapefile.

The purpose of this data set was to collect Cetacean distribution data and allow for estimating Cetacean abundance in the Southeast. These abundance estimates were expected to serve as a basis for estimating Potential Biological Removals (PBR) for the species stocks in the region in support of Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA) requirements. More specifically, the survey was to obtain an index of abundance for Tursiops truncatus so as to detect population trends by comparison with historical abundance data (SETS).

Records with no common name are some pollution observed (e.g. plastic). Records were assigned a sequential number LineNo. LineNo can be used to match observations with corresponding transects, each of which has BegLineNo and EndLineNo fields. Observation records with their LineNo between BegLineNo and EndLineNo in a transect are related to that transect. A duplicated LineNo indicates more than one species were observed at the same time. Records include 'off-effort' sightings. Card 'D' indicates the observation was recorded while on-effort. Card 'F' indicates the observation was recorded while off-effort. When searching for a specific species, note that some records don't identify animals observed at a species level. If this is the case, the common/scientific name may be genus/family or higher (e.g. Balaenoptera sp.).

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.

The dataset contains information necessary to locate the species sightings observed in the survey. The structure of the dataset was defined by NOAA Southeast Fisheries Science Center. Note that the dataset is a subset of the larger, complete dataset collected in the survey which includes environmental information. The columns before LineNo are applied to the shapefile only. The following information is not included in the dataset but will be found in the master data. For details, please contact NOAA Southeast Fisheries Science Center. Track; Speed; GPS Status; Observers; Airplane altitude; Weather; Sea state; Turbidity; Sunlight; Glare; Water color; Water temperature; Sighting angle; Effort status.

Attributes in dataset provided

Attribute (table column)	Description
lineno
card
studyblock
part
date
time
longitude
latitude
track
speed
loranstatus
leftobs
rightobs
datarcdr
altitude
weather
seastate
turbidity
sunlight
glare
watercolor
watertemp
sightobs
sightangle
sightinc
species
tsn
common
scientific
herdsize
nocalves
effortstat
transectno
oid