Occurrence

Norfolk/VA Beach Inshore Vessel Surveys

Latest version published by OBIS-SEAMAP on 27 April 2021 OBIS-SEAMAP
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Publication date:
27 April 2021
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Download the latest version of this resource data as a Darwin Core Archive (DwC-A) or the resource metadata as EML or RTF:

Data as a DwC-A file download 482 records in English (45 KB) - Update frequency: irregular
Metadata as an EML file download in English (18 KB)
Metadata as an RTF file download in English (16 KB)

Description

Original provider: HDR Environmental, Operations and Construction, Inc. Dataset credits: The U.S. Navy Marine Species Monitoring Program Abstract: A combination of visual line-transect survey, photo-identification (photo-ID), and automated acoustic monitoring methods was used to gather important baseline information on the occurrence, distribution, and density of marine mammals near Naval Station Norfolk (NSN) and adjacent areas. The study area was designed to cover areas where United States Navy activity is substantial, including Chesapeake Bay waters near NSN and Joint Expeditionary Base Little Creek-Fort Story, as well as a Mine Exercise (MINEX) Area (W-50) in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Virginia Beach, Virginia. Sixty-one line-transect surveys were completed in two zones (INSHORE and MINEX) between August 2012 and August 2015, with 6,550 kilometers (km) and 349.6 hours completed on-effort. The majority of sightings were of bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus), although humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae), harbor porpoises (Phocoena phocoena), and short-beaked common dolphins (Delphinus delphis) were also sighted in the study area on occasion. In addition, loggerhead sea turtles (Caretta caretta), leatherback sea turtles (Dermochelys coriacea), and a Kemp’s ridley sea turtle (Lepidochelys kempii) were sighted during surveys. Conventional line-transect analysis of bottlenose dolphin sightings showed both spatial and seasonal variation in density and abundance, with greatest density in the INSHORE zone during fall months. Densities in the INSHORE zone were calculated as 3.88 individuals per square kilometer (km2) (abundance[N]=1,203) in fall, 0.63 individuals per km2 (N=195) in winter, 1.00 individuals per km2 (N=311) in spring, and 3.55 individuals per km2 (N=1,101) in summer. Densities in the MINEX zone were calculated as 2.14 individuals per km2 (N=1,277) in fall, 0.06 individuals per km2 (N=37) in winter, 1.53 individuals per km2 (N=913) in spring, and 1.39 individuals per km2 (N=829) in summer. Twenty-seven photo-ID surveys were completed, and a photo-ID catalog was created using photos taken during both dedicated photo-ID and line-transect surveys through May 2014; it contains 878 identified individuals to date. Subsequent photos will continue to be added and analyzed. One hundred ten individuals were re-sighted; however, most re-sightings were less than 4 months and 30 km apart. Additional survey effort and further analysis will be required before any clear movement patterns can be determined. C-POD acoustic data-loggers were initially deployed at four sites throughout the study area to cover areas of high United States Navy activity. Bottlenose dolphins were detected in each deployment location during all deployments from August 2012 to December 2015. Though deployments did not provide consistent coverage in all seasons for all sites due to loss of gear, results from two deployment sites nearest to NSN showed a greater level of occurrence during fall months, and a diel pattern of occurrence with increased detections during nighttime hours for three deployment sites. Purpose: The HDR Marine Species Monitoring (MSM) Team was tasked to initiate a monitoring project in coastal waters around NSN, JEB-LC, JEB-FS, and the Virginia Beach waterfront, including the VACAPES MINEX W-50 training area. The main objective is to provide quantitative data and information on the seasonal occurrence, distribution, and density of marine mammals. Effort was dedicated to working with local researchers and employing proven marine mammal monitoring and research techniques to accomplish the following: 1. Conduct monthly systematic line-transect surveys to determine distribution of marine mammals in the vicinity of NSN, JEB-LC, JEB-FS, and the MINEX W-50 area. 2. Conduct monthly photo-identification (photo-ID) surveys during summer months to determine the site fidelity and distributional patterns of marine mammals utilizing the areas listed above. 3. Supplement visual surveys by deploying and retrieving four C-POD acoustic recording devices to monitor for dolphin echolocation clicks in specific locations. Supplemental information: [2019-08-26] New data were appended and some columns with empty values were removed. The dataset name is changed by dropping the time period part. Off-effort segments with the time span longer than 5 minutes or speed larger than 200km/h were deleted. [2015-03-24] A few records had a wrong animal count of zero. The value is replaced with a blank representing species presence only. [2014-11-25] Attributes were reorganized so that they meet provider's data schema and effort data (tracklines) were added. This dataset includes a subset of the data collection for the Norfolk-VABeach Vessel surveys. Other data of the collection are available in the following datasets: Norfolk/VA Beach MINEX Vessel Surveys Norfolk/VA Beach Photo-ID Surveys Aug 2012-Sep 2013 All the US Navy-funded survey datasets are found in the OBIS-SEAMAP US Navy page. The project is on-going and more data will be added periodically.

Data Records

The data in this occurrence resource has been published as a Darwin Core Archive (DwC-A), which is a standardized format for sharing biodiversity data as a set of one or more data tables. The core data table contains 482 records.

This IPT archives the data and thus serves as the data repository. The data and resource metadata are available for download in the downloads section. The versions table lists other versions of the resource that have been made publicly available and allows tracking changes made to the resource over time.

Versions

The table below shows only published versions of the resource that are publicly accessible.

How to cite

Researchers should cite this work as follows:

Engelhaupt, A., J. Aschettino, T.A. Jefferson, D. Engelhaupt, and M. Richlen. 2016. Occurrence, Distribution, and Density of Marine Mammals Near Naval Station Norfolk & Virginia Beach, VA: Final Report. Prepared for U.S. Fleet Forces Command. Submitted to Naval Facilities Engineering Command (NAVFAC) Atlantic, Norfolk, Virginia, under Contract No. N62470-10-3011, Task Orders 031 and 043, issued to HDR Inc., Norfolk, Virginia. 12 October 2016. https://www.navymarinespeciesmonitoring.us/files/9514/7630/9222/Engelhaupt_et_al._2016_-_Norfolk_Surveys_2015.pdf

Rights

Researchers should respect the following rights statement:

The publisher and rights holder of this work is OBIS-SEAMAP. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY 4.0) License.

GBIF Registration

This resource has been registered with GBIF, and assigned the following GBIF UUID: 0745302b-927a-4384-8459-dc1a56720c67.  OBIS-SEAMAP publishes this resource, and is itself registered in GBIF as a data publisher endorsed by Ocean Biodiversity Information System.

Keywords

Occurrence,Norfolk-VABeach Vessel,Marine Animal Survey,Marine Biology,Marine mammals,Sea turtles,Visual Sighting,Aircraft; Observation; Occurrence

External data

The resource data is also available in other formats

OBIS-SEAMAP Dataset Page http://seamap.env.duke.edu/dataset/1071 UTF-8 Interactive map
FGDC Metadata http://seamap.env.duke.edu/dataset/1071/xml UTF-8 XML

Contacts

Amy Engelhaupt
  • Owner
  • Originator
  • Point Of Contact
Primary contact
Dan Engelhaupt
  • Owner
  • Originator
  • Point Of Contact
Primary contact
OBIS-SEAMAP
  • Metadata Provider
  • Distributor
Marine Geospatial Ecology Lab, Duke University
A328 LSRC building
27708 Durham
NC
US

Geographic Coverage

North Atlantic

Bounding Coordinates South West [36.565, -76.369], North East [36.996, -75.807]

Taxonomic Coverage

Scientific names are based on the Integrated Taxonomic Information System (ITIS).

Family Cheloniidae (Sea Turtles)
Species Tursiops truncatus (Common Bottlenose Dolphin), Megaptera novaeangliae (Humpback Whale), Lepidochelys kempii (Kemp's Ridley), Caretta caretta (Loggerhead Sea Turtle)

Temporal Coverage

Start Date / End Date 2012-09-07 / 2015-08-14

Project Data

No Description available

Title The U.S. Navy Marine Species Monitoring Program
Funding The U.S. Navy Marine Species Monitoring Program

The personnel involved in the project:

Amy Engelhaupt
  • Owner
Dan Engelhaupt
  • Owner

Sampling Methods

NA

Study Extent NA

Method step description:

  1. NA

Collection Data

Collection Name zd_1071
Collection Identifier zd_1071
Parent Collection Identifier OBIS-SEAMAP

Additional Metadata

marine, harvested by iOBIS

Purpose The HDR Marine Species Monitoring (MSM) Team was tasked to initiate a monitoring project in coastal waters around NSN, JEB-LC, JEB-FS, and the Virginia Beach waterfront, including the VACAPES MINEX W-50 training area. The main objective is to provide quantitative data and information on the seasonal occurrence, distribution, and density of marine mammals. Effort was dedicated to working with local researchers and employing proven marine mammal monitoring and research techniques to accomplish the following: 1. Conduct monthly systematic line-transect surveys to determine distribution of marine mammals in the vicinity of NSN, JEB-LC, JEB-FS, and the MINEX W-50 area. 2. Conduct monthly photo-identification (photo-ID) surveys during summer months to determine the site fidelity and distributional patterns of marine mammals utilizing the areas listed above. 3. Supplement visual surveys by deploying and retrieving four C-POD acoustic recording devices to monitor for dolphin echolocation clicks in specific locations.
Alternative Identifiers 0745302b-927a-4384-8459-dc1a56720c67
http://ipt.env.duke.edu/resource?r=zd_1071