SEUS Right Whale EWS Aerial Surveys 2017-18

NOAA Fisheries, Southeast Regional Office
Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, Fish and Wildlife Research Institute
Clearwater Marine Aquarium Research Institute
Funding for surveys provided by: NOAA Fisheries, U.S. Navy, U.S. Coast Guard, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and Georgia Department of Natural Resources

Right whale Early Warning System (EWS) aerial surveys are conducted during winter in the southeastern United States (SEUS). Surveys in this dataset began in 2016/2017 and were flown by Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) and Clearwater Marine Aquarium Research Institute (CMARI, formerly Sea to Shore Alliance). FWC surveys were conducted in a Cessna 337 Skymaster aircraft with 2 observers (1 of which was also the data recorder); CMARI surveys were typically conducted in a NOAA Twin Otter aircraft with 2 observers plus 1 dedicated data recorder. Target altitude was 1,000 ft, and target speed was 100 kts.
Only large whales, large sharks, and leatherback turtles were consistently recorded by both teams. Manatees, ocean sunfish, and manta rays were consistently recorded by FWC. All other species were recorded opportunistically. Surveys broke track to obtain exact locations for large whales; locations for other species typically represent the location along the survey transect.

N/A

Survey data are split into three seasons (2016/17, 2017/18, and 2018/19). This is the 2017/18 season. The 2016/17 season is available at
http://seamap.env.duke.edu/dataset/1990.
The 2018/19 season is available at
http://seamap.env.duke.edu/dataset/2004.

Effort data are provided. The Trackline field (used to distinguish effort on a predetermined transect from verification surveys and transits) was recorded by observers during surveys.

Additional information on species identification and taxonomic resolution may be available in the Notes and Photos fields.

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)
objectid	Object ID
ddsource	Survey team
fileid	Survey team and date code
eventno	Event number
sdate	Survey date
time_gmt	Time (GMT): HHMMSS
time_local	Local time: HHMMSS added by OBIS-SEAMAP
lat	Latitude in decimal degrees
long	Longitude in decimal degrees
legtype	Survey type code
legstage	Survey watch code
trackline	Transect, transit, or verification code
sightno	Sighting reference number
speccode	Species code
sp_tsn	Taxonomic Serial Number added by OBIS-SEAMAP
idrel	Reliability of species identification
number	Group size
confidnc	Reliability of group size
numcalf	Number of calves observed
anhead	Animal heading code
photos	Photographs taken
behav1	Behavior code
behav2	Behavior code
behav3	Behavior code
behav4	Behavior code
behav5	Behavior code
behav6	Behavior code
behav7	Behavior code
behav8	Behavior code
behav9	Behavior code
behav10	Behavior code
behav11	Behavior code
behav12	Behavior code
behav13	Behavior code
behav14	Behavior code
behav15	Behavior code
notes_org	Notes during survey
comments	Notes after survey
geom	Geometry field added by OBIS-SEAMAP