Lamont-Doherty/LGL/NSF cruises

Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory

LGL Limited - Environmental Research Associates

National Science Foundation

Marine geophysical seismic research funded by the NSF includes a marine mammal and sea turtle monitoring and mitigation program. Protected Species Observers record all instances of marine mammals and turtles observed during surveys and while in transit to the survey site. The sightings data are also provided in 90 day reports available online here.

Sightings data are collected as part of a marine mammal and sea turtle monitoring program during academic seismic surveys.

When the number of animals sighted was not available, it was filled with '1' to be conservative and noted in the Notes field. When the number of animals sighted was a range, the lower estimate was used to be conservative and noted in the Notes field. When the time was not available, it was filled with '00:00:00' and noted in the Notes field.

7/27/2011: This dataset was updated to include additional sightings and effort.

8/3/2011: Effort data were updated to fix transects crossing 180/-180 degrees longitude.

3/7/2012: Sightings were corrected and updated.

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 SEAMAP)
recid	Record ID unique per survey
surveyid	Survey name
vessel	Vessel name
obs_datetime	Sighting date and time
wdepth	Water depth in meters
obs_loc	Observer location
day	Day of observation
month	Month of observation
year	Year of observation
seismic	Seismic line number
watch	Watch (start or end or blank)
observer1	Observer 1
observer2	Observer 2
observer3	Observer 3
observer4	Observer 4
hour	Hour of observation
minute	Minute of observation
second	Second of observation
deglat	Degree latitude
minlat	Minute latitude
deglong	Degree longitude
minlong	Minute longitude
lat	Latitude in decimal degrees
lon	Longitude in decimal degrees
activity	Seismic activity code (contact provider for the codes)
noofguns	Number of guns
array_vol	Total gun volume
arraydepth	Array depth
seastate	Beaufort sea state
visibility	Visibility (km)
lightordark	Light (day) or dark
glare_amnt	Glare amount code
glare_pos	Glare position (clock position)
sp_obs	Species observed
sp_tsn	ITIS taxonomic serial number. This field added by OBIS-SEAMAP
obs_count	Number of animals
movement	Animal movement code
behavior1	Behavior 1
behavior2	Behavior 2
whereat	Position of the animal when first seen
whereto	Direction of the animal moving relative to the ship
reticles	Reticles (number or estimate)
sight_dist	Sighting distance
sight_cue	Sighting cue
idreliability	Species identification confidence level
pace	Behavior pace
comments	Comments
geom	definition not provided