Virginia Aquarium Marine Mammal Strandings 1988-2008

Virginia Aquarium & Marine Science Center

Dataset credit

Virginia Aquarium Stranding Response Program

Contacts

RoleNameOrganization 
Primary contact Sue Barco Virginia Aquarium Foundation-Research
Data entry Ei Fujioka Duke University

Citation

Abstract

Virginia receives 100-140 marine mammal strandings per year and the Virginia Aquarium & Marine Science Center (VAQS) is the sole response and rehabilitation facility in the state. VAQS records basic (level A) data, for all marine mammals, as well as more in depth (level B and C) data whenever possible. The OBIS dataset contains the basic level A data for all stranded marine mammals, responded to by VAQS, and spans the years of 1988-2008.

Purpose

These data can be used to report the presence and seasonality of marine mammal species when survey data are lacking. Absence of a species from the dataset does not, however, indicate absence from the area as stranding data are opportunistic data that require detection of a mortality on a coastline. Those data points located in a water body indicate that the animal was first seen floating. Human interaction (HI) data are included as part of the level A dataset but must be analyzed carefully as 'YES' for HI does not necessarily indicate that the stranding or the death of an animal was caused by human activity.

Supplemental information

N/A

References

Attributes

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.
Only minimum required attributes are visible and downloadable online. Other attributes may be obtained upon provider's permission.

Attributes in dataset

Attribute (table column)Description
idRow ID assigned by OBIS-SEAMAP
commonSpecies common name
field_idFIELD #
obs_datedate
scientificScientific name.
sp_tsnITIS taxonomic serial number. This field added by OBIS-SEAMAP
obs_countanimal count. Always 1. Added by OBIS-SEAMAP.
agencyAgency
stState
cityCity/county
localityLocality
latLatitude in decimal degree
longLongitude in decimal degree
hiHuman Interaction
conCondition Code
initial_ndefinition not provided
final_ndefinition not provided
sexSex
lengthdefinition not provided
e_lengthEstimated length
wghtWeight
pdefinition not provided
init_dispdefinition not provided
final_dispFinal carcass disposition
geomGeometry field added by OBIS-SEAMAP
oidUnique ID number (generated by SEAMAP)
OBIS-SEAMAP ID502
Seabirds0
Marine mammals1,555
Sea turtles0
Rays and sharks0
Other species0
Non spatial33
Non species0
Total1,588
Date, Begin1988-01-15
Date, End2008-12-16
Temporal prec.111000
Latitude34.93 - 38.18
Longitude-76.97 - -75.16
Coord. prec.6 decimal digits
PlatformShore
Data typeAnimal sighting
EffortN/A
Traveled (km)0
0
Contr. through
Registered2009-04-24
Updated2013-12-28
StatusPublished
Sharing policy CC-BY-NC (Minimum)
Shared with OBIS
GBIF (via DOI)
See metadata in static HTML
See metadata in FGDC XML
See download history / statistics