65496 Sight Cues Entity Published / External 65428 Cetacean visual observations using line-transect survey methods onboard the NOAA Ship Gordon Gunter in the Gulf of Mexico, January through March 2018, GoMMAPPS survey (GU1801) Data Set Completed 2021-10 Cues to marine mammal sightings Main goal is to provide cue’s location and distance from platform Data Table Table provides cue’s location and distance from platform 10 surveyEventID Character 6 6 Yes No Active Unique identifier to a survey (vessel or aircraft based) event. For vessel survey: composed of the vessel's acronym followed by a 2-digit survey year and a 2-digit consecutive mission-number on that vessel (a.k.a cruise code). Cruise name / Cruise Number Made up of a combination of a two character Boat Abbreviation : GU = Gordon Gunther a two digit year: 18 for 2018 a two digit cruise number: 01 for first cruise of the year 20 eventID numeric Yes No Active Unique numeric identifier for each survey effort point recorded at regular time intervals. For vessel surveys: approximately every 30 seconds. For aerial surveys: approximately every 10 seconds. This is the indexing number that allows each marine mammal sighting, non-mammal occurence and cue to be linked to the effort points. See also dwc:eventID 30 time time Yes No Active Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) date-time during data recording. YYYY-MM-DDHH24:MN:SS 40 eventdate time Yes No Active Local date-time during data recording. YYYY-MM-DDHH24:MN:SS 50 sightingNumber numeric 4 Yes No Active The unique identifier for the Sighting (for marine mammal sighting). 70 observationLocation character 1 Yes No Active Description of where on the vessel the observer was located when the animal was first detected. For vessel survey: 1=vessel's Flying Bridge (FB), 2=vessel's Bridge Wing (BW) (a.k.a. bridge deck). 80 observationLocationposition character 20 Yes No Active Description of where on each observationLocation (Flying bridge or Bridge wing) the observer was positioned in relation to the platform, when the animal was first detected. Y,N 85 recordedBy Numeric 2 Yes No Active Numeric code for each observer 87 onEffort character 1 Yes No Active Effort status designating if observers were on effort (e.g. observers actively scanning for marine mammals through the big eye binoculars with the vessel steadily cruising on the trackline) or off effort (e.g. observers searching naked eyed, whenever the ship was maneuvering and turning onto a new trackline, if other operations were taking place, during bad weather and whenever observers were not actively searching for cetaceans through the big eyes) at the moment of data recording. Y=Yes (on effort), N=No (off effort). For vessel survey: #1=vessel's Flying Bridge, #2=vessel's Bridge Wing (a.k.a. bridge deck). Y=Yes (on effort), N=No 110 distance numeric Yes No Active The number of reticles below the horizon using big eye binoculars (reticle 0 indicates the sighting is at the horizon) or the distance in meters if naked-eye between the animal (or center of group of animals) and the vessel when the cue was first seen by the observer. 120 distanceUnit character Yes No Active The unit of measurement of the sighting distance: reticles (big eye binoculars) or meters (naked eye). 130 bearingToAnimals Numeric Yes No Active Horizontal angle in degrees between the trackline and the line to the animal or group of animals when first sighted, even if a reliable species identification has not yet been made. The trackline is defined as the line of travel that the platform is actually doing, which may not necessarily be the proposed line that was in the original design. Assuming the platform is traveling forwards, the line of travel on the trackline, which is the front of the platform (e.g. bow of ship or front of plane) is at zero degrees bearing. During SEFSC vessel surveys, the observers scan the water from 10 degrees on the opposite side to 90 degrees and bearings are recorded from 0 to 90 on the left or right. See also MBGVLTS: bearingToAnimals Degrees 140 bearingToAnimalsSide character Yes No Active Side of the bearingToAnimals in relation to the trackline (left or right) from the platform. 150 sightingDistanceInMeters Numeric Yes No Active Radial distance calculated based on the distance reading (reticle or meters) and the observationHeight (Lerczak and Hobbs, 1998. Calculating sighting distances from angular readings during shipboard, aerial, and shore-based marine mammal surveys. Marine Mammal Science, Vol. 14(3):590-599) 160 distanceEstimationMethod character Yes No Active If 1st seen using Big eye binoculars or Naked eye (i.e. unaided eye without binoculars). 170 observationHeight numeric Yes No Active Height in meters of each observationLocation (for vessel survey: flying bridge or bridge wing) from the water surface to the big eyes binoculars at an average's adult height. Measurement is specific to each platform (vessel). meters 180 sightingCueLatitude Numeric Yes No Active The latitude of the sightingCue at the moment of data recording. degrees latitude 185 sightingCueLongitude Numeric Yes No Active The latitude of the sightingCue at the moment of data recording Degrees Longitude 190 platformLatitude Numeric Yes No Active Latitude Value (Location) of the platform at time of sighting Degrees of Latitude 195 platformLongitude Numeric Yes No Active Platform Location Longitude at the time of sighting Degrees Longitude 197 sightingCue character 20 Yes No Active Description of what was seen first of the group, that is, the cue associated with the first sighting of the animal (or group of animals). A behavioral code may be used (e.g. BL = blow). 200 typeVLTS character Yes No Active One-character string to flag only the initial sighting records which can be used in density and abundance estimation. Opportunistic and subsequent sighting records can be included in the dataset, but these are easily identified from this term for exclusion from abundance and density modeling. The fixed vocabulary terms are: F = first observation sighting on transect, O = opportunistic sighting, S = subsequent sighting either on or off transect, Null = for position-only records or non-VLTS datasets. 210 platformVLTS character 1 1 Yes No Active One-character string to flag survey platform type for visual line transect surveys. A = aerial surveys B = boat-based surveys 220 geodeticDatum character Yes No Active The ellipsoid, geodetic datum, or spatial reference system (SRS) upon which the geographic coordinates given in decimal Latitude and decimal Longitude as based. 230 higherInstitutionCode Character Yes No Active Institution codes, in the form of abbreviated institution names, separated by semicolons, that define the hierarchy of institutions within which the data originator operates. Includes the originating institution as the lowest level (rightmost) code. 234 permitNumber character 100 Yes No Active The federal permit number which gives permission for the data collection. (This value is the same for every record in this file) 240 platformAttributes character Yes No Active Model, name and/or other proper characteristics of the platform where the survey was conducted. For vessel: e.g. NOAA Ship Gordon Gunter, NOAA Ship Pisces. For aerial survey: e.g. NOAA De Havilland DHC-6-300 Twin Otter. 250 relatedProjectProgram character 100 Yes No Active Official project and/or program under which the survey was conducted (e.g. AMAPPS, GoMMAPPS). If applicable. 270 samplingProtocol character Yes No Active The names of, references to, or descriptions of the methods or protocols used during an Event. Public URL to survey and/or cruise reports if available. Distributor 2021 Organization NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information NCEI ncei.info@noaa.gov https://ror.org/04r0wrp59 https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/contact NCEI Contact Information Information for contacts at NCEI. Online Resource https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/archive/accession/0241032/1.1/data/0-data/NOAA_SEFSC_GoMMAPPS_GU1801_NCEI_DataPackage/NOAA_SEFSC_GoMMAPPS_GU1801_VisualSightingData/NOAA_SEFSC_GoMMAPPS_GU1801_MMSightsCues_20211001.csv 2021 Organization NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information https://ror.org/04r0wrp59 NOAA_SEFSC_GoMMAPPS_GU1801_MMSightsCues_20211001.csv gov.noaa.nmfs.inport:65496 Lee Weinberger 2021-09-15T21:55:54 SysAdmin InPortAdmin 2026-03-04T19:17:17 2022-09-23 Southeast Fisheries Science Center SEFSC 75 Virginia Beach Drive Miami FL 33149 USA (305)361-5761 www.sefsc.noaa.gov 8:00 a.m. - 4:30 p.m. EST 1001 Public No 2021-10-13 1 Year 2022-10-13