SEFSC GoMMAPPS 2017 Summer Aerial Survey

NOAA Southeast Fisheries Science Center (SEFSC)

As part of the GoMMAPPS program, the Southeast Fisheries Science Center conducted aerial surveys of continental shelf waters (up to the 200-m isobath) in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico. The survey was conducted between 29 June and 17 August 2017 aboard a NOAA Twin Otter aircraft at an altitude of 600 feet (183 m) and a speed of 100-110 knots. Survey tracklines were oriented perpendicular to the shoreline and latitudinally spaced 20 km apart. The survey was designed for analysis using Distance sampling with a two-team (independent observer) approach to correct for perception bias in resulting abundance estimates.
The study area extended from the shoreline to the 200-m isobath between Key West, FL and Brownsville, TX, and included fine-scale tracklines over estuarine waters of Mississippi Sound.

The goal of the survey was to conduct line-transect surveys using the Distance sampling approach to estimate the abundance and spatial distribution of marine mammals and sea turtles in waters over the continental shelf in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico.

Provider's survey code is TOSE17SUM.
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 by the forward team.

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_org	OID assigned by provider
type	Species group (turtle or mammal)
comname	Species common name
sp_tsn	Taxonomic Serial Number added by OBIS-SEAMAP
individualcount	Number of animals sighted
latitude	Latitude in decimal degrees
longitude	Longitude in decimal degrees
perpendiculardistance	Perpendicular distance to the animal
eventdate	Date and time of the sighting in local time
transect	Transect No.
beaufort	Beaufort sea state
cloudcover	Cloud cover code
glare	Glare 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
platformspeed	Platform speed in knots
sighttype	Sighting type (always F)
datasetid	Dataset ID assigned by provider
datasetname	Dataset name by provider
eventdatetimezone	Time zone
geom	Geometry field added by OBIS-SEAMAP