Description
Original provider: Virginia Aquarium & Marine Science Foundation Dataset credits: Virginia Aquarium & Marine Science Foundation Abstract: The Virginia Aquarium & Marine Science Center Foundation, Inc. (VAQF) is tasked to conduct aerial surveys for the continental shelf region off the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay within the Virginia Capes Operating Area (VACAPES OPAREA) to provide marine species monitoring services. In 2007, a multi-institutional project utilizing multiple platforms (i.e., aerial, vessel, and passive acoustic monitoring) aimed at protected species monitoring off the East Coast of the United States commenced. The current survey will complement existing United States (U.S.) Navy marine species monitoring efforts (Aerial Survey Baseline Monitoring- Atlantic Fleet Training and Testing) and supports environmental planning and regulatory compliance along the East Coast of the United States. This project represents the first year of U.S. Department of the Navy-funded aerial survey efforts off Virginia Beach, Virginia. These surveys build upon previous survey efforts funded by Virginia Coastal Zone Management (CZM) Program to document large whale occurrence in the vicinity of the Virginia Wind Energy Area (VA WEA) and contribute to regional mid-Atlantic ocean planning efforts. VAQF in collaboration with University of North Carolina Wilmington (UNCW) conducted line-transect aerial surveys from 2012 through 2017, although surveys were not flown every month or with consistent effort between years (Mallette et al. 2014, 2016). The goal of the current aerial survey project is to complement existing monitoring projects and contribute baseline protected species occurrence data, including species distribution; abundance; density estimates; and seasonal habitat usage. The survey site includes an approximately 6,500-square-kilometer area off the coast of Virginia extending from the southern portion of the eastern shore of Virginia to the North Carolina/Virginia state border. The aerial survey design was established based upon advisements from the Centre for Research into Ecological and Environmental Modeling (CREEM) at the University of St. Andrews and objectives identified by the U.S. Navy. VAQF conducted fixed-wing aerial line-transect surveys, using previously established distance-sampling protocols, to document the occurrence of marine mammals and sea turtles. VAQF worked closely with the UNCW to maintain consistency among the safety, flight, and data-reporting protocols for Hatteras/Onslow/JAX baseline monitoring projects (McAlarney et al. 2013, 2015). The current report describes monitoring activities that occurred between January 2017 and June 2017. Between the months of January and June 2017, 12 sightings of 14 humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) were recorded within the "VAQ on-shelf" survey area off the coast of Virginia. No other baleen whale species were recorded during the NAVFAC funded "VAQ on-shelf" aerial surveys during this period. Sightings of whales were documented over four survey days between January and June 2017: 11 January (5 sightings of 5 whales), 12 January (3 sightings of 3 whales), 21 February (1 sighting of 2 whales) and 24 February (3 sightings of 4 whales).
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 439 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:
Bort Thornton, J. and S. Mallette. 2022. Aerial Survey Baseline Monitoring in the Continental Shelf Region of the VACAPES OPAREA: January - February 2017. Version 1.0.0. Dataset published in OBIS-SEAMAP. https://doi.org/10.82144/a8dfd47f.
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 Non Commercial (CC-BY-NC 4.0) License.
GBIF Registration
This resource has been registered with GBIF, and assigned the following GBIF UUID: 6cd06298-4870-4fe7-804a-8903257a665c. OBIS-SEAMAP publishes this resource, and is itself registered in GBIF as a data publisher endorsed by Ocean Biodiversity Information System.
Keywords
Occurrence; Observation; Marine Biology; Visual sighting; VACAPES Aerial; Marine Animal Survey; Marine mammals; Visual Sighting; Aircraft; Occurrence
External data
The resource data is also available in other formats
| OBIS-SEAMAP Dataset Page | https://seamap.env.duke.edu/dataset/2212 UTF-8 Interactive map |
|---|---|
| FGDC Metadata | https://seamap.env.duke.edu/dataset/2212/fgdc UTF-8 XML |
| EML Metadata | https://seamap.env.duke.edu/dataset/2212/eml UTF-8 XML |
Contacts
- Owner ●
- Originator ●
- Point Of Contact
- Primary contact
- Metadata Provider ●
- Distributor
- A328 LSRC building
Geographic Coverage
Oceans,North Atlantic,Virginia
| Bounding Coordinates | South West [36.544, -76.042], North East [37.329, -75.046] |
|---|
Taxonomic Coverage
Scientific names are based on the Integrated Taxonomic Information System (ITIS).
| Superclass | Osteichthyes (Bony fishes) |
|---|---|
| Class | Chondrichthyes (Cartilaginous fishes) |
| Subclass | Elasmobranchii (Cartilaginous fishes) |
| Superfamily | Chelonioidea |
| Family | Delphinidae (Dolphins) |
| Species | Caretta caretta (Loggerhead sea turtle), Delphinus delphis (Short-beaked common dolphin), Dermochelys coriacea (Leatherback sea turtle), Manta birostris (Atlantic manta), Megaptera novaeangliae (Humpback whale), Mola mola (Ocean sunfish), Rhinoptera bonasus (Cownose ray), Tursiops truncatus (Common bottlenose dolphin) |
Temporal Coverage
| Start Date / End Date | 2017-01-11 / 2017-06-22 |
|---|
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:
- Owner
- Originator
Sampling Methods
NA
| Study Extent | NA |
|---|
Method step description:
- NA
Collection Data
| Collection Name | zd_2212 |
|---|---|
| Collection Identifier | zd_2212 |
| Parent Collection Identifier | OBIS-SEAMAP |
Bibliographic Citations
- Mallette S. and Barco, S. 2017. Aerial Survey Baseline Monitoring in the Continental Shelf Region of the VACAPES OPAREA: January - February 2017. Data downloaded from OBIS-SEAMAP (https://seamap.env.duke.edu/dataset/2212)
Additional Metadata
marine, harvested by iOBIS. This data was created and submitted to the U.S. Department of the Navy on aerial surveys conducted along the continental shelf off the coast of Virginia Beach, Virginia, from January to June 2017. To build upon the existing dataset in the proximity of the VA WEA, previously established transect lines were modified based upon recommendations from CREEM and discussions with UNCW and the Navy to manage overlap between the coastal (VAQF) and Norfolk Canyon Survey Area offshore (UNCW) survey areas. Static map of effort (tracklines) are visible on the OBIS-SEAMAP web site but not included in the download.
| Purpose | n/a |
|---|---|
| Alternative Identifiers | https://doi.org/10.82144/a8dfd47f |
| https://www.gbif.org/dataset/6cd06298-4870-4fe7-804a-8903257a665c | |
| https://seamap.env.duke.edu/dataset/2212 | |
| https://obis.org/dataset/7453cccb-6d2f-47c9-a68f-09c2bd2a59bc | |
| 6cd06298-4870-4fe7-804a-8903257a665c | |
| https://ipt.env.duke.edu/resource?r=zd_2212 |