Mar ReCon: Interactions with Biological Communities, Marine Birds

These data are part of the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill (EVOS) Trustee Council's project "Sustainable mariculture development for restoration and economic benefit in the EVOS spill area".

This dataset contains marine bird observation data from eastern Prince William Sound (PWS) from November 2022 - 2023. The dataset includes 2 comma-separated value (csv) files exported from the at-sea marine bird and mammal observation software SeaLog (ABR, Inc). The csv files are organized by year and survey type (strip-transect, stationary). Marine bird observations were collected annually in March, May, July, and November from 3 bays in eastern PWS.

All marine bird observations were conducted using established U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) protocols (USFWS 2007). All strip-transect surveys recorded number of birds sighted by observers within a strip transect width of 300 meters (150 m both sides and ahead of the boat, in 3 distance bins of 50 m) made by a research vessel. All stationary surveys recorded the number of birds sighted by observers over a 15 minute period during which the vessel remains in a single location. The observer recorded observations into a laptop computer integrated with a global positioning system (GPS) using the program SeaLog. These GPS-integrated programs provided location data at 15-sec intervals and for every entered observation.