Tampa Bay 2023-2024 Manatee Distribution Survey Flight Path

Aerial distribution surveys are used by marine mammal biologists from Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission-Fish and Wildlife Research Institute (FWC-FWRI) and other agencies to determine the seasonal distribution of manatees. Most surveys are conducted from small, four-seat, high-winged airplanes (Cessna 172 or 182) flying at a height of 500-1000 ft at a speed of 70-90 kts. This survey was conducted by one aircraft mostly following historical flight paths used for past county-wide distribution surveys. However, some changes have been made to shorten the flight route or to cover areas not flown in previous paths. Flight paths generally curved parallel to the shoreline, and the airplane circled when manatees were spotted until a count of the number of animals in each group was obtained. Circling was limited to 3 passes unless a group was unusually large and aerial photos may have been used in some cases to confirm counts. Sightings data were recorded on paper maps and entered into a GIS shapefile for spatial analysis using NAIP 2023 imagery and recorded flight paths as a reference. GIS is a computer software system for representing data spatially and for conducting spatial analyses. This dataset includes recorded flight paths from 24 surveys flown on the following dates: 13 September 2023, 6 and 23 October 2023, 18 and 29 November 2023; 5 and 29 December 2023; 18 and 26 January 2024; 16 and 27 February 2024; 7 and 25 March 2024; 9 and 17 April 2024; 3 and 30 May 2024; 4 and 26 June 2024; 23 and 27 July 2024; 12 and 27 August 2024; and 12 September 2024. Flight path records were obtained from GPS devices or downloaded from FlightAware (https://flightaware.com) where GPS data were not available. For the 3 May 2024 survey, only the lower resolution flight path data from FlightAware were available. Tracklines are edited to remove transit and off-effort tracks.佛罗里达鱼类与野生动物保护委员会-鱼类与野生动物研究所（FWC-FWRI）及其他机构的海洋哺乳动物生物学家，借助航空分布调查确定海牛的季节性分布。绝大多数调查均采用四座小型上单翼飞机（赛斯纳172或182型）执行，飞行高度为500至1000英尺，飞行速度为70至90节。本次调查由单架飞机开展，整体沿用过往全县范围分布调查的历史飞行航线，但为缩短航程或覆盖以往航线未涉及的区域，对航线作出了部分调整。飞行航线通常平行于海岸线呈弧形延伸，发现海牛后，飞机将盘旋直至完成对每群动物的计数。盘旋次数通常限制为3次，但若群体规模异常庞大则可放宽，部分场景下还会通过航空照片辅助确认计数结果。目击数据先记录于纸质地图，随后录入地理信息系统（Geographic Information System）形状文件，结合2023年NAIP影像与记录的飞行航线作为参考开展空间分析。地理信息系统是一类用于空间数据表达与空间分析的计算机软件系统。本数据集包含24次调查的记录飞行航线，具体调查日期如下：2023年9月13日；2023年10月6日、23日；2023年11月18日、29日；2023年12月5日、29日；2024年1月18日、26日；2024年2月16日、27日；2024年3月7日、25日；2024年4月9日、17日；2024年5月3日、30日；2024年6月4日、26日；2024年7月23日、27日；2024年8月12日、27日；2024年9月12日。飞行航线记录可通过GPS设备获取，若无法获取GPS数据，则从FlightAware（https://flightaware.com）下载相关记录。针对2024年5月3日的调查，仅可获取FlightAware提供的低分辨率飞行航线数据。已对航线轨迹进行编辑，移除其中的转场航线与非作业航线。