North American Grid-Based Offshore Sampling Frames

This sampling frame is a set of grid-based, finite-area frames spanning the offshore areas surrounding Canada, the United States, and Mexico, and is intended for use with the North American Bat Monitoring Program (NABat). NABat is a continental collaboration including state and provincial, federal, and local agencies intended to standardize the collection and storage of bat data. Alaskan and Canadian waters are combined into a single grid. There are 5 grids in total: Alaska/Canada Offshore grid, Continental United States Offshore grid, Mexico Offshore grid, Hawaii Offshore Grid, and Caribbean Offshore grid. Grids boundaries are based on World Exclusive Economic Zone oceanic political boundaries and extend into the shoreline 30 kilometers.