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

Original provider: NOAA Southeast Fisheries Science Center (SEFSC) Dataset credits: NOAA Southeast Fisheries Science Center (SEFSC) Abstract: 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.

Citation: Garrison, L. and G. Rappucci. 2026. Vessel Surveys for Abundance and Distribution of Marine Mammals and Seabirds project 2023 (GU2303). Version 1.0.0. Dataset published in OBIS-SEAMAP. Data accessed on yyyy-mm-dd from https://seamap.env.duke.edu/dataset/2387.

Published: March 26, 2026 at 16:04

First registration: March 26, 2026 at 16:05

License: To the extent possible under law, the publisher has waived all rights to these data and has dedicated them to the Public Domain (CC0 1.0)

URL: https://ipt.env.duke.edu/resource?r=zd_2387