Observatoire Pelagis - Reseau National Echouage (French stranding network) strandings 1934-2020

Observatoire PELAGIS UAR 3462, University La Rochelle - CNRS- Agence des Aires Marines Protégées - Direction de l'Eau et de la Biodiversité

The French stranding network is co-ordinated by the Joint Service Unit PELAGIS, UAR 3462, University of La Rochelle-CNRS, dedicated to monitoring marine mammal and seabird populations, as a continuous monitoring programme. The network is constituted of around 300 trained volunteers distributed along the whole French coast who collect data according to a standardized observation and dissection protocol. The network was established in the early 1970’s and its organisation and procedures are considered unchanged since the mid 1980’s. Data are centralized into a single database held in La Rochelle.

With over 23,000 entries, the stranding data base documented since 1970 by the French stranding network provides one of the largest dataset on cetaceans in Europe. Stranding data would rank high in cost-effectiveness compared to most other sources of data on cetaceans because they are do not require to any expensive field work at sea. As a result of their comparatively low cost per unit effort, stranding data can be collected across wide spatial and temporal ranges and at fine resolution. For scientific purposes, the term “stranding” is commonly used for either live or
dead specimen.

[2024-01-18] Data in 2021-22 were appended.
[2022-01-18] Data in 2020 were appended.
[2018-04-26] Records in 2016 were appended.
[2017-01-05] Records in 2015 were appended.

Time and group size of the sightings are not available online. They may be released upon request.

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)
date_original	definition not provided
obs_date	Date of the observation (time is not available)
observer	Observer name
city	City name
latitude	Latitude in decimal degrees
longitude	Longitude in decimal degrees
area	Area
species	Species name recorded
sp_tsn	Taxonomic Serial Number added by OBIS-SEAMAP
data_producer	Data producer
data_administrator	Data administrator
cdnom	Unique ID of the sighting
obs_time	Time of the observation is not available
obs_count	Group size is not available.
tprecision	TEmporal precision (10000: year only; 111000: year, month, day; 000000: no date value)
geom	Geometry field added by OBIS-SEAMAP