AMAPPS Southeast Aerial Cruise Winter 2015

Original provider: NOAA Southeast Fisheries Science Center (SEFSC) Dataset credits: NOAA Southeast Fisheries Science Center (SEFSC) Abstract: As part of the AMAPPS program, the Southeast Fisheries Science Center conducts aerial surveys of continental shelf waters along the US east coast from Cape Canaveral, Florida to Cape May, New Jersey. The survey was conducted during 2015 between 23 January and 3 March. It was conducted along tracklines oriented perpendicular to the shoreline that were latitudinally spaced 20 km apart aboard a NOAA Twin Otter aircraft at an altitude of 600 feet (183 m) and a speed of 110 knots. The survey was designed for analysis using Distance sampling and a two- team (independent observer) approach to correct for visibility bias in resulting abundance estimates. The survey covered waters from Cape May, NJ to Cape Canaveral, FL including “fine-scale” tracklines in waters offshore of New Jersey. The majority of survey effort occurred in waters from Cape Hatteras, NC and south. Due to weather conditions during the survey, a few areas of the study area were not surveyed.