California Current Cetacean and Ecosystem Assessment Survey (extent)

This layer is intended to represent the geographic extent of NOAA Fisheries’ California Current Cetacean and Ecosystem Assessment Survey. The California Current Cetacean and Ecosystem Assessment Survey started in 1991 and is led by NMFS Southwest Fisheries Science Center. This survey includes ship-, aerial-, and land-based surveys of marine mammals throughout the California Current Large Marine Ecosystem. Survey data have been used to estimate cetacean population size and trends, delineate cetacean population stock structure, describe cetacean and seabird distributions and hotspots, develop species distribution models, and inform marine mammal stock assessment reports pursuant to statutory requirements under the Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA). Research vessels conduct line-transect surveys, typically every three years, in summer and fall and span waters out 300 nautical miles offshore, from the US-Canada to US-Mexico border. NOAA research vessels (David Starr Jordan, McArthur, McArthur II, Reuben Lasker, Bell M. Shimada) collect visual sightings data for cetaceans and seabirds, passive acoustic (e.g., towed or drifting array) data for cetaceans, tissue biopsy sampling used for genetics analysis, and oceanographic sampling.

This data product is intended to help communicate the geographic extent of NOAA Fisheries’ scientific surveys on the continental margin of the U.S. West Coast. NOAA Fisheries conducts numerous scientific surveys to inform the status of fish stocks and protected resources. For the West Coast Region and Pacific Fisheries Management Council, more than a dozen surveys are conducted routinely across the continental margin, focusing either on pelagic or demersal species or the ecosystem as a whole. They collect a variety of biological and environmental data to provide a synoptic view of the habitats and ecosystems for which the target species inhabit. The surveys utilize varying designs including fixed stations where a number of operations are centered, transect lines where fishery acoustic data are continually collected, and stratified random sampling, to name a few.

Montlake facility

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Version 6.2 (Build 9200) ; Esri ArcGIS 10.7.1.11595

No missing features.

Features were confirmed and checked via team review.

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Data were loaded from source data into ArcGIS Pro and a definition query was used in order to isolate the survey of interest, then published to ArcGIS Online.