SCANS II cetacean sightings on tracker platform of vessel surveys 2005

Sea Mammal Research Unit, University of St. Andrews

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Surveys from seven different vessels were merged. Each vessel contained two sightings platforms running concurrently – primary and tracker. This dataset includes sightings from the tracker platform. Sightings from the primary platform are registered in SCANS II cetacean sightings on primary platform of vessel surveys 2005.

Effort or vessel tracks for these surveys are provided with the primary platform dataset. Survey conditions such as sea state, glare, swell, wind are found in the effort data.

In the tracker platform, Big-eye binoculars were used.

The trackers used to track groups of animals as they came passed the boat and record them accordingly. However, this dataset does not contain such duplicates.

The dataset has been updated over time as outlined below. Each entry includes the version number, release date, type of change, and a short description.

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)
index	Index
gpsindex	GPS index
obs_date	Date of observation
obs_time	Time of the observation (local time zone converted from UTC by OBIS-SEAMAP)
datetime_utc	Date and time of observation in UTC
sightingnumber	Sighting number
button	Button
reticle	Reticle in degrees
reticleline	Reticle line
sp_obs	Species name recorded
sp_tsn	Taxonomic Serial Number added by OBIS-SEAMAP
multispecies	Flag of multiple species
lownumber	Low number of number of animals
obs_count	best estimate of number of animals
highnumber	High number of number of animals
calves	Number of calves
cue	Record of the initial cue for the sighting
behaviour	Behavior
aspectvalue	Aspect value
duplicatestatus	Duplicate status
duplsightingno	Duplicate sighting number
matchstatus	Match status
matchsightno	Match sighting number
endtrack	End track
observer	Observer ID
platform	Platform
estimatedangle	Estimated angle
radialdistance	Radial distance
buttonref	ButtonRef
measuredbearing	Measured bearing (calculated later using software)
measureddistance	Measured distance (calculated later using software)
transect	Transect number
latitude	Latitude in decimal degrees
longitude	Longitude in decimal degrees
seconds	Seconds
transect_original	Transect original
ik_eff	definition not provided
check_radialdistance	definition not provided
pdist	definition not provided
timesseen	definition not provided
vessel_code	Vessel code
geom	Geometry field added by OBIS-SEAMAP