BOEM Sperm Whale Seismic Study (SWSS) MPS cetacean sightings 2002-2004

Texas A&M University
Oregon State University
Scripps Institution of Oceanography
Texas A&M University-Galveston
University of Colorado
University of Durham
University of Saint Andrews
University of South Florida
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution

Sperm Whale Seismic Study (SWSS) was a multi-institutional, interdisciplinary research project supported by the then Minerals Management Service (MMS; now Bureau of Ocean Energy Management - BOEM) under Cooperative Agreement 1435-01-02-CA-85186 for Cooperative Research on Sperm Whales and their Response to Seismic Exploration in the Gulf of Mexico through the Texas A&M Research Foundation.

The objectives of SWSS were to
(1) establish baseline information on the biology and behavior of sperm whales in the northern Gulf of Mexico,
(2) characterize sperm whale habitat use in the northern Gulf of Mexico, and
(3) determine possible changes in behavior of sperm whales when subjected to manmade noise, particularly from seismic airgun arrays used for offshore oil and gas exploration and geological monitoring.

N/A

This dataset contains cetacean sightings (other than sperm whales) observed in PHOTO-ID/Mesoscale Population Study Cruises 2004 and 2005.

Sperm whale visual tracking data are found in BOEM Sperm Whale Seismic Study (SWSS) MPS sperm whale trackings 2004-2005 which is also accompanied with effort data.

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)
index	Index of rows in the original data table
gpsindex	Foreign key to GPS data
obs_datetime	Date and time (local time zone)
sighting_no	Sighting Number
other_time	Other format of time
sp_obs	Species code recorded
sp_tsn	ITIS Taxonomic Serial Number assigned by OBIS-SEAMAP
cue	Cue
distance	Distance
bearing	Bearing (°)
heading	Heading
ship_heading	Ship heading
seen_from	Location of the observer
seen_by	Initial of the observer
obs_count	Number of animals
adults	Number of adults
juveniles	Number of juvelines
calves	Number of calves
birds	Number of birds
behaviour1	Behavior code 1
behaviour2	Behavior code 2
behaviour3	Behavior code 3
notes	Notes
end_time	End time
latitude	Latitude in decimal degrees
longitude	Longitude in decimal degrees
gps_heading	GPS heading
headingtype	Heading type
speed	Speed
speedtype	Speed type
gpserror	GPS error
datastatus	Data status
geom	Geometry field added by OBIS-SEAMAP