TGS Seismic Survey Visual Sightings in Chukchi Sea 2013

ASRC Energy Services, Inc.
TGS-NOPEC Geophysical Company

TGS-NOPEC Geophysical Company (TGS) conducted a 2D marine seismic survey along predetermined lines in U.S. Federal and international waters of the Chukchi Sea during the open-water season from 25 August to 30 October 2013. Two vessels were involved including 1) a seismic vessel (Geo Arctic) towing a 3,280 cu.in. seismic array and 8,100 m long solid streamer cable and 2) a marine mammal monitoring vessel (Norseman) which operated in advance of the seismic vessel. Both vessels had teams of visual protected species observers (PSOs) trained to monitor and implement seismic mitigation according to regulatory permits from U.S. Agencies. A combined-vessel total of 480 visual sightings occurred over 30,798 km of combined-vessel observer effort (both on and off effort). In addition to visual observers, the monitoring vessel also employed a towed passive acoustic monitoring (PAM) system. This dataset includes visual sighting data and acoustic data is presented separately.

N/A

In numeric or date/time fields, original data may contain 'X' which was replaced with Null.

Overview

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

Attributes in dataset

Attribute (table column)	Description
oid	Unique ID number (generated by OBIS-SEAMAP)
company	Company
vessel_name	Vessel Name
vessel_role	Vessel role (Source or Monitoring)
obs_datetime	Date and time (local time) of observation
sighting_id	Sighting identification number
sp_obs	Species name recorded
scientific	Scientific Name
sp_tsn	Taxonomic Serial Number added by OBIS-SEAMAP
obs_count	Number of individuals observed.
juv_count	Number of juveniles observed.
where_at	The location of the sighting on the clockface where forward is 12:00.
where_to	The clockface direction the animal is heading relative to the animal (not the vessel).
stg_meth	Sighting method
reticle	Reticle of sighting (degrees). Blank if observed by naked eye.
stg_dist	Distance (meters)
visual_cue	First cue that the observer identified.
behav_1st	First behavior observed.
behav_2nd	Second behavior observed.
water_ice	If the animal(s) were observed in Water or Ice (or both:IL).
pace	Pace of animal.
react_1st	Reaction of animal.
react_2nd	Secondary reaction, if applicable.
activity_type	Vessel activity type
latitude	Latitude in decimal degrees based on sighting distance and bearing
longitude	Longitude in decimal degrees based on sighting distance and bearing
sea	Chukchi Sea
stg_depth	Depth at sighting position calculated in Mysticetus.
observed_by	Initials of PSO that observed the sighting.
recorded_by	Initials of the PSO that recorded the data.
reliability	Reliability of the identification of the sighting.
mitigation_type	Mitigation type
call_time	Call time of mitigation, if applicable. Blank if not.
time_implemented	Time mitigation was implemented, if applicable. Blank if not.
cpa_time	Time of the animal
elapsed_time	Calculated from fist and last record of same animal(s). Blank: if only seen once
cpawhereat	Clock face position of the animal at its closest point of approach to the vessel.
cpa_to_obs	Distance (meters) at closest point of approach to observer for the sighting
final_cpa_to_obs	Distance (meters) at closest point of approach to observer for multiple sightings
notes	Additional details pertaining to the sighting.
geom	Geometry field added by OBIS-SEAMAP