Sea turtle sightings in Ghana and Ivorycoast

Marijke N. de Boer

Within the Gulf of Guinea the information on the at-sea distribution of sea turtles is scarce. A cetacean and turtle survey took place during two geophysical surveys (2013–2014) along the coasts of Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire. Here we present data on sea turtles including information on environmental conditions (sea surface temperature and water depth).

The main purpose of this study was to contribute information on the distribution and occurrence of marine turtles sighted during two geophysical survey but also to understand the threat posed by interactions with fisheries either due to unintended bycatch (entanglement) or direct capture.

Details on cetaceans are presented in
De Boer, MN (2019). Cetacean sightings in Ghana and Ivorycoast. Version 1.0.0. Dataset published in OBIS-SEAMAP. https://doi.org/10.82144/4427f2df.

And seabird sighting are also available in
de Boer, M. 2019. Seabird sightings in Ghana and Ivorycoast. Version 1.0.0. Dataset published in OBIS-SEAMAP. https://doi.org/10.82144/fdad4556.

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.
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
oid	Unique ID number (generated by OBIS-SEAMAP)
sighting_number	Sighting number
date	Date of observation
time_in_gmt	time of observation in GMT
date_time	Date and time of observation
latitude	Latitude in decimal degrees
longitude	Longitude in decimal degrees
water_depth	Water depth in meters
species	Species name
sp_tsn	Taxonomic Serial Number added by OBIS-SEAMAP
certainty	Certainty
bearing_to_animal	Bearing to animal
range_of_animal	Range of animal (meters)
total_number	Total number of animals
number_of_adults	Number of adults (visual sightings only)
number_of_juveniles	Number of juveniles (visual sightings only)
number_of_calves	Number of calves (visual sightings only)
photo	Photo (yes/no)
behaviour	Behaviour (visual sightings only)
direction_of_travel	Direction of travel (relative to ship)
direction_of_travel_compass	Direction of travel (compass points)
wind_dir	Wind direction
wind_force	Wind force
sea_state	Sea state
swell	Swell
visibility	Visibility
glare	Glare
precipation	Precipitation
sst	SST
geom	Geometry field added by OBIS-SEAMAP