NEFSC Mid-Atlantic Marine Mammal Abundance Survey 2004

NOAA Northeast Fisheries Science Center (NEFSC)

This dataset includes data from Cruise No. EN 04-395/396, collected on the ship R/V Endeavor. Leg I was conducted from 23 June to 12 July 2004. Leg II was conducted from 16 July to 4 August 2004. Both legs started and ended in Narragansett, Rhode Island, United States. The study area for both legs was in mid-Atlantic waters from the 100 m depth contour to the Gulf Stream, from Virginia to Cape Cod, Massachusetts, United States.

The primary objectives of the survey were to:
1) Determine the spatial distribution and abundance of cetaceans and turtles in the study region,
2) Determine the spatial distribution and relative abundance of sea birds in the same region, and
3) Use passive acoustics to record vocalizing cetaceans that will hopefully be used to improve the abundance estimates derived from the visual surveys.

A secondary objective was to compare the distribution of these species with each other, physical characteristics, such as water depth and temperature, and biological characteristics, such as relative plankton distribution.

This shipboard survey was conducted in conjunction with an aerial survey 'NEFSC aerial circle-back abundance survey 2004', also available as a separate datset on OBIS-SEAMAP.

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
cruise	Cruise ID
year	Year of observation
month	Month of observation
day	Day of observation
time	Time of the observation (local time)
lat	Latitude in decimal degree
long	Longitude in decimal degree
species	Species observed
obs_count	Number of animals observed
transect	Transect No
leg	Leg No
geom	Geometry field added by OBIS-SEAMAP
oid	Unique ID number (generated by OBIS-SEAMAP)