Data Management Plan (Deprecated)

The National Marine Mammal Laboratories' California Current Ecosystem Program (AFSC/NOAA) initiated and maintains census programs for California sea lions (Zalophus californianus) and northern fur seals (Callorhinus ursinus) at San Miguel and San Nicolas Islands, California. The program documents annual pup births, pup mortality, and temporal patterns in adult and juvenile presence at San Miguel Island. For both species, the database contains field data on the annual number of live pups and dead pups by location. At San Miguel Island, daily counts of adults, pups, and juveniles in a sample area are also available. The data are used to describe population trends and changes in land resource use among the species.

San Miguel and San Nicolas Islands, of the California Channel Islands

Lineage Statement:
Pup Birth Census: 1. All pups are counted by two or more observers that walk through the colony, along bluffs or from a blind counting all live pups observed. Counters use hand tallies and record their counts individually in their data books. Observers do not discuss individual counts while in the field. 2. For California sea lions, the entire colony at San Miguel is counted over 4-5 days; at San Nicolas Island a sample area is counted over 2 days. For northern fur seals, all pups are counted on a single survey. When counts span several days, distinct break points in the topography (usually headlands or large breaks in the distribution of animals such that is unlikely that adjacent areas mix) are used to provide markers to avoid counting the same pups on different days. 3. Counts are entered into the Microsoft Access database each night and error checked by the observers. When the census is complete, the average number of pups is computed for the colony or sample area. Pup Mortality Survey: 1. Pup mortality surveys for California sea lions are conducted in sample areas on San Miguel and San Nicolas Islands. At San Miguel Island, the area is the Point Bennett rookery located on the west end of the island and represents about 45% of the total population. At San Nicolas Island, the area includes the southwest end of the island and represents about 33% of the population. Pup mortality surveys for northern fur seals are conducted in Adams Cove on the mainland of San Miguel throughout the reproductive season and only once on Castle Rock. 2. At San Miguel Island, pup mortality surveys are conducted at 10-15 day intervals beginning the first week of July and ending the middle of August. Surveys conducted after the end of the reproductive season may be at 15 day intervals or up to 1-2 months. At Castle Rock, a single mortality survey is conducted at the same time as the live pup survey for each species. At San Nicolas Island, one to three surveys are conducted over the reproductive season. 3. When surveys are conducted over the season, observers search the sample areas and collect and count each dead pup they encounter. The data includes: island, date, area on the island, species, beach location, substrate type, and carcass condition. The carcasses are then stacked into piles throughout the rookery to avoid counting individual carcasses more than once. In a few years, carcasses were tagged with individual numbers for a mark-recapture study to estimate disappearance rates of carcasses. Each carcass was tagged with two uniquely numbered tags and left on the beach. On the subsequent surveys, the tags and carcass condition were recorded when tagged carcasses were encountered creating a capture history for each carcass over the season. 4. Counts are entered into the Microsoft Access database and edited by the observer that collected the data. The total number of dead pups over the season for each species at each colony provides an index of the annual pup mortality.

Data are edited in the field and entered into the database by the person who collected the data. The data managers make sure all the data are entered in the same format and check and correct for inconsistencies in the data.

The dataset is available for download via the NCEI Ocean Archive System at http://accession.nodc.noaa.gov/0145165.

IT Security and Contingency Plan for the system establishes procedures and applies to the functions, operations, and resources necessary to recover and restore data as hosted in the Western Regional Support Center in Seattle, Washington, following a disruption.