Species Search

Species Search at a Glance

Searching species

Species Search page returns a list of species that match your criteria. If you are interested in finding datasets, Dataset Search would be more useful for you.

With Species Search, you can search species by:

• taxonomic tree,
• species of interest,
• region of interest, and
• time range.

Below are typical criteria you find Species Search useful for:

• I'm looking for humpback whale observations.
• I'm looking for observations for genus Kogia and its children.
• What marine mammals are observed in my study area?
• What protected species are found in my study area?
• I'm researching species behavioral ecology. Can I find some information in OBIS-SEAMAP?
• I want to know how many, where and when blue whales are sighted worldwide.
• I'm collecting sighting information for humpback whales in my study area in 2000-2003. 
• I want to see hawksbill's long term migration. Can you visualize it?

If you are interested in a certain species (e.g. humpback whale), use Species Search and enter species name in the Species box. Then, click the species in the list to go to Species Profile page.

Tutorials

Features & Functions

Face	Feature	Description
(Default)	Identify	This function is available when no tool button is selected. If another button is selected, deselecting it enables "Identify." Click on the cell you want to get the information for. The popup window will come out, showing #observations in the cell. Be patient as it may take the results several seconds to show.
	Species of interest	Enter a part of scientific/common name of your species into the text box. A list of candidate species shows up. If you find your species in the list, select it or you can keep typing. Once done, click [Update] to refresh the map. The map shows the observations of that species.
	Zoom in	To zoom in, you need to define a rectangle on the map where you want to zoom in. First click on the map to locate one of the two diagonal vertices of the rectangle. Release the mouse button and move the mouse to the other diagonal point. The red guiding line appears. Then click again to fix the rectangle.
	Draw region of interest	A region of interest (ROI) takes a rectangular shape. First click on the map to locate one of the two diagonal vertices of the rectangle. Release the mouse button and move the mouse to the other diagonal point. The red guiding line appears. Then click again to fix the rectangle. The map is updated automatically, extracting observations in the ROI drawn.
	Remove ROI	To remove the region of interest (ROI), click the button and click on the ROI you want to remove. The map is updated automatically.
	Transparency	Slide the bar to left (more opaque) or right (more transparent) to adjust the transparency of the region of interest.
	Hide/show map	Click buttons to hide/show the map. Hiding map makes the dataset list area taller so you can see more datasets at once.
	Show/hide graph area	Click the button (pale yellow background) to show and hide the graph area. The graph area may close automatically depending on your criteria.
Protected status Only species with Taxonomic tree	Search options	You can specify additional species search options. Expand Protected status, Only species with categories. Protected status: Species protected status under U.S Endangered Species Act. Check "Endangered" or "Threatened" or both to search the species in that protected status. The status information comes from ECOS of US Fish and Wildlife and gets updated monthly. Only species with: "Species with description" option searches species that have ecological description in addition to taxonomic information. The description was compiled by the OBIS-SEAMAP staff using various sources. "Species with more than xx records" option searches species that have more than xx records. Enter the number in the box. Taxonomic tree: Search species in a specified taxonomic group including child species.

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