AMAPPS Southeast Aerial Cruise Fall 2016

NOAA Southeast Fisheries Science Center (SEFSC)

As part of the AMAPPS program, the Southeast Fisheries
Science Center conducted aerial surveys of continental
shelf and slope waters from New Jersey to North Carolina
between 23 November - 31 December, 2016. The survey was
flown aboard a NOAA Twin Otter aircraft at an altitude of
600 feet (183 m) and a speed of 110 knots. The survey
path
followed tracklines oriented perpendicular to the
shoreline and latitudinally spaced 20 km apart. “Fine-
scale” track lines were surveyed in waters off the coast
of New Jersey, Delaware and Virginia. The survey was
designed for analysis using Distance sampling and a two-
team (independent observer) approach to correct for
visibility bias in resulting abundance estimates. Due to
staffing issues, one team with four observers (left and
right bubbles, belly and a data recorder) conducted the
survey between 23-25 November. After 13 December the
survey was conducted with two teams per usual protocol.

The goal of the surveys was to conduct line-transect
surveys
using the Distance sampling approach to estimate the
abundance and spatial distribution of marine mammals and
turtles in waters over the continental shelf and slope
(shoreline to 2,000 m isobath) of the eastern US.

Perpendicular distance to the animal is not publicly
available.
The dataset is accompanied by transect (effort) data
which
is provided as a separate file.
Sightings included were detected on-effort by the forward
team only; you may request the full dataset and sightings
including opportunistic ones directly to the provider.

Environmental Attribute Codes
Beaufort Sea state
0 Calm, mirror like seas
1 Waves <1ft, rippled surface
2 Small wavelets (<2 ft), no white caps
3 Large wavelets (<3ft), scattered white caps
4 Swell 3-4 ft, numerous white caps
5 Swell >5 ft, many white caps, some spray
6 Swell >10 ft, white caps everywhere, spray
CloudCover
0 Clear
1 0-25% Cloudy
2 26-50% Cloudy
3 51-75% Cloudy
4 76-100% Cloudy
5 Overcast
Glare (Glare intensity)
0 No Impairment
1 Slight Impairment
2 Moderate Impairment
3 Severe Impairment
Weather
0 Clear
1 Mist
2 Light Rain
3 Heavy Rain
Conditions
0 Poor
1 Fair
2 Moderate
3 Good
4 Excellent
Haze
0 No
1 Yes
Fog
0 No
1 Yes
Sun penetration (Sun pen)
0 Poor
1 Fair
2 Good
3 Excellent
Turbidity
0 Poor
1 Fair
2 Good
3 Excellent

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.
All attributes are included in the downloadable file (CSV or ESRI File Geodatabase) for "Complete Set of Dataset".

Attributes in dataset

Attribute (table column)	Description
oid	Unique ID number (generated by OBIS-SEAMAP)
effortid	Effort ID
oid_orig	OID assigned by provider
type	Type (Mammal or Turtle)
comname	Species common name
sp_tsn	Taxonomic Serial Number added by OBIS-SEAMAP
individualcount	Individual count
latitude	Latitude in decimal degrees
longitude	Longitude in decimal degrees
perpendiculardistance	Perpendicular distance to the animal
eventdate	Date and time of the sighting at local time
transect	Transect No.
beaufort	Beaufort sea state
cloudcover	Cloud cover code
glare	Glare cover code
weather	Weather code
conditions	Overall conditions code
haze	Haze presence
fog	Fog presence
sunpen	Sun penetration code
turbidity	Turbidity code
tripid	Trip ID
platformvlts	Always A (Airplane)
oneffort	Flag (Y/N) to indicate on effort.
observationheight	Altitude of aircraft in feet above sea level in feet
platformspeed	Speed of the platform in knots
sighttype	Sighting type ("F")
datasetid	Dataset ID by provider
datasetname	Dataset name by provider
eventdatetimezone	The time zone of the observation event (UTC)
geom	Geometry field added by OBIS-SEAMAP