Vessel Surveys for Abundance and Distribution of Marine Mammals and Seabirds project 2023 (GU2303)

NOAA Southeast Fisheries Science Center (SEFSC)

As part of the Vessel Surveys for Abundance and Distribution of Marine Mammals and Seabirds (VSAD) project, the Southeast Fisheries Science Center (SEFSC) conducted a shipboard survey of the U.S. oceanic waters of the Gulf of Mexico out to the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) from 2023-06-22 to 2023-08-14. The survey was designed for a two-team independent visual observer approach with distance sampling to estimate the detection probabilities for marine mammal sightings. A sighting constituted a single or group of marine mammals (whales and dolphins) seen at the same location and time. This dataset includes marine mammal visual observation data and effort points with surveying conditions that can be used in abundance and density modeling per visual line-transect survey protocols. This dataset also includes opportunistic marine mammal photographs and biopsy samples, and non-marine mammal sightings (a.k.a. occurrences) such as sea turtles.

The primary goal was to conduct visual line-transect survey for abundance estimation, and distribution of cetaceans in the U.S. waters of the Gulf of Mexico (GoMx).

This is a reformatted version of the archive stored in U.S. National Centers for
Environmental Information (NCEI; https://doi.org/10.25921/rp7t-jn41).

Sightings reported as Selachii (AphiaID: 368408) were mapped to Elasmobranchii (TSN: 159786) for consistency with the ITIS taxonomy adopted by OBIS‑SEAMAP.
Non-animal observations are removed.

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.
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)
geom	Geometry field added by OBIS-SEAMAP
surveyid	Survey ID (GU2303)
parenteventid	Parent Event ID
eventid	Event ID
occurrenceid	Occurrence ID
recordedby	Recorded by
associatedmedia	Associated media (blank)
verbatimidentification	Verbatim identification
vernacularname	Species vernacular name
scientificnameid	WoRMS AphiaID
scientificname	Scientific name
scientificnameauthorship	Scientific name authorship
identificationremarks	Identification remarks
identificationreferences	Identification references
occurrenceremarks	Occurrence remarks
materialsampleid	Material sample id
preparations	Preparations (blank)
occurrencestatus	Occurrence status ("present")
id_level	Taxon level of the identification
sp_tsn	ITIS Taxonomic Serial Number added by OBIS-SEAMAP
eventdate	Event date
verbatimeventdate	Sighting date and time
decimallatitude	Longitude in decimal degrees
decimallongitude	Latitude in decimal degrees
eventtype	Event type ("sighting" for marine mammal sighting; "other" for other species sighting)
basisofrecord	Basis of record ("occurrence")
samplingprotocol	Sampling protocol
eventremarks	Event remarks
datasetname	Dataset name by provider
bibliographiccitation	Bibliographic citation
year	Year
country	Country
countrycode	Country code
locality	Locality
highergeography	Higher geography
highergeographyid	Higher geography id
geodeticdatum	Geodetic datum ("WGS84")
verbatimcoordinatesystem	Verbatim coordinate system
institutioncode	Institution code ("DOC | NOAA | NMFS | SEFSC")
institutionid	Institution id
accessrights	Access rights
license	License (public domain)
references_
language_
modified	Modified
behaviorchange	Behavior change
behaviorinitial1	Behavior initial 1
behaviorinitial2	Behavior initial 2
behaviorinitial3	Behavior initial 3
behaviornew1	Behavior new 1
behaviornew2	Behavior new 2
behaviornew3	Behavior new 3
biopsycollected	Biopsy collected
biopsypunchsize	Biopsy punch size
birdidentification	Bird identification
birdpresence	Bird presence
calvesattributes	Calves attributes
calvespresence	Calves presence
cookiecuttershark	Cookie cutter shark bite scar
effort1	Effort 1
effort2	Effort 2
fishidentification	Fish identification
fishpresence	Fish presence
individualcount	Individual count (average if multiple best counts)
individualcountbest	Individual count best (may be multiple numbers)
individualcountcalves	Individual count calves
individualcountmax	individual count max (may be multiple numbers)
individualcountmin	Individual count min (may be multiple numbers)
individualcountneonates	Individual count neonates
multiplespecies	Multiple species
multiplespeciesremarks	multiple species remarks
neonateattributes	Neonate attributes
neonatespresence	Neonates presence
remora	Remora
response	Response
shapechange	Shape change
shapeinitial	Shape initial
shapenew	Shape new
sightingremarks	Sighting remarks
speciesdescription	Species description
vesselapproach	Vessel approach
vesselmaneuver	Vessel maneuver
sighting_attributes	sighting attributes including cues in JSON format