NOAA Ship Gordon Gunter Vessel Line-transect Survey 2023 (GU2301)

NOAA Southeast Fisheries Science Center (SEFSC)

As part of the Atlantic Marine Assessment Program for Protected Species
(AMAPPS), the Southeast Fisheries Science Center (SEFSC) conducted a
shipboard survey of the U.S. waters of the Western North Atlantic (WNA)
from approximately the 200m isobath out to the U.S. Exclusive Economic
Zone (EEZ). The survey was conducted between February 4 and April 27,
2023 onboard the NOAA Ship Gordon Gunter, for a total of 44 days at sea
split into three survey legs. Multiple days were lost due to mechanical
problems with the ship (Jan 23 to Feb 2) and unfavorable weather
conditions (April 8 to 10). February 3 and April 28 were departure (start
survey) and arrival (end survey) days, respectively. The survey was
designed for a two-team independent visual observer approach with
distance sampling to estimate the detection probabilities for marine
mammal sightings. A sighting constituted a single or group of marine
mammals (whales and dolphins) seen at the same location and time. This
dataset includes marine mammal visual observation data and effort points
with surveying conditions that can be used in abundance and density
modeling per visual line-transect survey protocols. This dataset also
includes opportunistic marine mammal photographs and non-marine
mammal sightings such as sea turtles.

The primary goal was to conduct visual line-transect survey for abundance
estimation, and distribution of cetaceans in the U.S. waters of the Atlantic
Ocean.

This is a reformatted version of the archive stored in U.S. National Centers for
Environmental Information (NCEI; https://doi.org/10.25921/hhxz-vm91).

Non-animal observations (14 records) are removed.

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)
geom	Geometry field added by OBIS-SEAMAP
surveyid	Survey ID (GU2301)
parenteventid	Parent Event ID
eventid	Event ID
occurrenceid	Occurrence ID
recordedby	Recorded by
associatedmedia	Associated media (blank)
verbatimidentification	Verbatim identification
vernacularname	Species vernacular name
scientificnameid	WoRMS AphiaID
scientificname	Scientific name
scientificnameauthorship	Scientific name authorship
identificationremarks	Identification remarks
identificationreferences	Identification references
occurrenceremarks	Occurrence remarks
materialsampleid	Material sample id
preparations	Preparations (blank)
occurrencestatus	Occurrence status ("present")
id_level	Taxon level of the identification
sp_tsn	Taxonomic Serial Number added by OBIS-SEAMAP
eventdate	Event date
verbatimeventdate	Sighting date and time
decimallatitude	Longitude in decimal degrees
decimallongitude	Latitude in decimal degrees
eventtype	Event type ("sighting" for marine mammal sighting; "other" for other species sighting)
basisofrecord	Basis of record ("occurrence")
samplingprotocol	Sampling protocol
eventremarks	Event remarks
datasetname	Dataset name by provider
bibliographiccitation	Bibliographic citation
year	Year
country	Country
countrycode	Country code
locality	Locality
highergeography	Higher geography
highergeographyid	Higher geography id
geodeticdatum	Geodetic datum ("WGS84")
verbatimcoordinatesystem	Verbatim coordinate system
institutioncode	Institution code ("DOC | NOAA | NMFS | SEFSC")
institutionid	Institution id
accessrights	Cccess rights
license	License (public domain)
modified	Modified
behaviorchange	Behavior change
behaviorinitial1	Behavior initial 1
behaviorinitial2	Behavior initial 2
behaviorinitial3	Behavior initial 3
behaviornew1	Behavior new 1
biopsyattempted	Biopsy attempted
biopsycollected	Biopsy collected
birdidentification	Bird identification
birdpresence	Bird presence
calvesattributes	Calves attributes
calvespresence	Calves presence
cookiecuttersharkbitescar	Cookie cutter shark bite scar
effort	Effort
effort1	Effort 1
effort2	Effort 2
fishidentification	Fish identification
fishpresence	Fish presence
individualcount	Individual count (average if multiple best counts)
individualcountbest	Individual count best (may be multiple numbers)
individualcountcalves	Individual count calves
individualcountmax	individual count max (may be multiple numbers)
individualcountmin	Individual count min (may be multiple numbers)
multiplespecies	Multiple species
multiplespeciesremarks	multiple species remarks
neonatespresence	Neonates presence
remora	Remora
response	Response
shapechange	Shape change
shapeinitial	Shape initial
shapenew	Shape new
sightingremarks	Sighting remarks
speciesdescription	Species description
vesselapproach	Vessel approach
vesselmaneuver	Vessel maneuver
sighting_attributes	sighting attributes including cues in JSON format