SEFSC GoMMAPPS Vessel Survey 2018 Winter

NOAA Southeast Fisheries Science Center (SEFSC)

As part of the Gulf of Mexico Marine Assessment Program for Protected Species (GoMMAPPS), the SEFSC conducted shipboard surveys of the oceanic waters of the Gulf out to the U.S. Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) between 14 January and 16 March 2018. The survey was designed for a two independent visual observer teams approach with Distance sampling to estimate the detection probabilities for marine mammal sightings; however, the survey was conducted with only one team between 14 January and 5 February.

The primary goal was to collect data on the distribution and abundance of marine mammals in the U.S. waters of the Gulf of Mexico (GOM) using visual survey teams and passive acoustic monitoring.

Provider's survey code is GU1801.
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 flying bridge only or by both the flying bridge and bridge wing teams.

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
Visibility
0 Clear
1 Good
2 Fair
3 Poor
Weather
0 Clear
1 Mist
2 Light Rain
3 Heavy Rain
Cloud Cover
0 Clear
1 0-25% Cloudy
2 26-50% Cloudy
3 51-75% Cloudy
4 76-100% Cloudy
5 Overcast
Glare
0 No Glare
1 <10% of visual field
2 10-25% of visual field
3 26-50% of visual field
4 51-75% of visual field
5 >75% of visual field
Glare intensity
0 No Impairment
1 Slight Impairment
2 Moderate Impairment
3 Severe Impairment
Conditions
0 Poor
1 Fair
2 Moderate
3 Good
4 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)
sightid	Sight ID
comname	Species common name
sp_tsn	Taxonomic Serial Number added by OBIS-SEAMAP
individualcount	Number of animals sighted (average of best counts by observers)
latitude	Latitude in decimal degrees (WGS84)
longitude	Longitude in decimal degrees (WGS84)
perpendiculardistance	Perpendicular distance (not available to the public)
eventdate	Date and time of the sighting in local time
transect	Transect No.
beaufort	Beaufort sea state
visibility	Visibility code
weather	Weather code
cloudcover	Cloud cover code
glare	Glare code
glareintensity	Glare intensity code
conditions	Overall conditions code
effortid	Effort ID
tripid	Trip ID
platformvlts	Always V (Vessel)
oneffort	Flag (Y/N) to indicate on effort
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