NOAA Ship Gordon Gunter Vessel Line-transect Survey 2021 (GU2103)

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 June 12 and September 5, 2021 onboard the NOAA Ship Gordon Gunter, split into three survey legs.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the scientific staff sheltered-in-place (SIP) before the start of the survey and before leg 3. Multiple days were lost due to mechanical problems with the ship and unfavorable weather conditions. The final portion of this survey transited through the Gulf of America (formerly Gulf of Mexico). 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. Sea bird observers conducted counts of all birds detected within a 300m strip transect from the ship during all legs of the survey (see additional references and data below). The scientific echosounder (EK) recorded data during the nighttime from the end of the survey day until commencement of acoustic effort, the following morning (CIMAS, NOAA Southeast Fisheries Science Center, 2024). Environmental data was collected at predetermined stations using a conductivity, temperature, and depth sensor (CTD) unit (Wanninkhof, Sullivan, and Pierrot, 2021).

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/gwbg-7k67).

Sightings reported as Mobula birostris (AphiaID: 1026118) were mapped to Manta birostris (TSN: 160992) for consistency with the ITIS taxonomy adopted by OBIS‑SEAMAP.

Sightings reported as Selachii (AphiaID: 368408) were mapped to Elasmobranchii (TSN: 159786) for consistency with the ITIS taxonomy adopted by OBIS‑SEAMAP.
Non-animal observations are removed.

The dataset has been updated over time as outlined below. Each entry includes the version number, release date, type of change, and a short description.

Overview

This section explains attributes included in the original dataset. The availability of the attributes depends on the share policy. When "Minimum attributes" is selected, only date/time, lat/lon, species identification and group size are available. Should you need other attributes described here, you are encouraged to contact the data provider. When "All attributes" is selected, all attributes are available in download.

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	ITIS 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	Access rights
license	License (public domain)
references_
language_
modified	Modified
biopsycollected	Biopsy collected
shapenew	Shape new
speciesdescription	Species description
behaviornew3
response	Response
individualcountmin	Individual count min (may be multiple numbers)
behaviornew2
individualcountneonates
behaviorinitial3	Behavior initial 3
vesselapproach	Vessel approach
birdpresence	Bird presence
fishpresence	Fish presence
behaviorinitial1	Behavior initial 1
calvespresence	Calves presence
effort1	Effort 1
shapeinitial	Shape initial
effort2	Effort 2
shapechange	Shape change
calvesattributes	Calves attributes
individualcountmax	individual count max (may be multiple numbers)
remora	Remora
behaviorinitial2	Behavior initial 2
multiplespecies	Multiple species
cookiecuttershark
behaviornew1	Behavior new 1
individualcountcalves	Individual count calves
vesselmaneuver	Vessel maneuver
behaviorchange	Behavior change
birdidentification	Bird identification
neonatespresence	Neonates presence
neonateattributes
sightingremarks	Sighting remarks
fishidentification	Fish identification
individualcount	Individual count (average if multiple best counts)
individualcountbest	Individual count best (may be multiple numbers)
multiplespeciesremarks	multiple species remarks
sighting_attributes	sighting attributes including cues in JSON format