Dataset

Sea Watch Foundation Marine Megafauna Sightings: 1971 to present

OBIS UK MeasurementOrFact Open in mapper Explore occurrences

The Sea Watch Foundation has been collecting both effort-based and non-effort-based sightings data of marine mammals and other megafauna since the late 1960s. The main area of coverage is the waters around Britain and Ireland but with some surveys elsewhere. Data come from platforms ranging from small to large vessels either on dedicated survey or platforms of opportunity, and from coastal land sites. Data collected include environmental conditions, marine traffic, and seabird associations. Sighting records come from all types of marine user from marine mammal biologists to citizen scientists and members of the public. All sightings are checked, and species ID validated from still or video images and/or descriptions, except in those cases where persons are known, experienced, observers.

Citation: Sea Watch Foundation non effort-related sightings database. Accessed on –INSERT DATE-

Published: March 05, 2025 at 11:13

URL: https://www.dassh.ac.uk/ipt/resource?r=seawatchfoundation_marine_megafauna_sightings_1971_to_present

Peter Evans
Sea Watch Foundation

James Waggitt
Bangor University

Simone Evans
Sea Watch Foundation

The archive for marine species and habitats data (DASSH)
The archive for marine species and habitats data (DASSH)

Sea Watch Foundation
Sea Watch Foundation

232,694
occurrence records
1,785,721
measurements and facts
46
taxa
34
species

Taxa

Missing and invalid fields

Field Missing Invalid
coordinateUncertaintyInMeters 217,280 71
93.4%

Quality flags

The OBIS data quality flags are documented at https://github.com/iobis/obis-qc.

Flag Dropped Records
ON_LAND 16,333
7.0%
DEPTH_EXCEEDS_BATH 2,740
1.2%
NO_ACCEPTED_NAME 3
0.0%

Measurement types

DNA derived data