Indian River Lagoon 2021-2025 Manatee Distribution Survey Flight Path

<DIV STYLE="text-align:Left;"><DIV><DIV><P><SPAN>Aerial distribution surveys are used by marine mammal biologists from FWC 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 three 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 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. Sightings data were recorded on paper maps and entered into a GIS shapefile for spatial analysis using NAIP 2019 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 22 surveys flown on the following dates: 21 Oct 2021; 16 Dec 2021; 14 Jan 2022; 20 and 21 Feb 2022; 20 and 21 March 2022; 23 May 2022; 09 and 12 Aug 2022; 16 and 17 Oct 2022; 9, 10, and 11 Dec 2022; 20 Jan 2023; 13 and 14 Feb 2023; 22, 23, and 24 March 2023; 9 and 10 May 2023; 21 and 22 August 2023; 9, 10, and 14 October 2023; 19 and 20 December 2023; 10 and 11 January 2024; 14 and 22 February 2024; 12 March 2024; 23 and 24 May 2024; 20 and 23 August 2024; 15 and 16 May 2025. For surveys that were conducted on multiple dates, the last date is recorded in the SurveyDate field. Flight path records were obtained from GPS devices or downloaded from FlightAware or ForeFlight where GPS data were not available. For the 16 Dec 2021 survey, only the lower resolution flight path data from FlightAware were available for the southern survey area. For the 23 March 2023 survey, only the lower resolution flight path data from FlightAware were available for the northern survey area. For the 19 Dec 2023 survey, only the lower resolution flight path data from Flight Aware was available for a portion of the southern survey area. Tracklines are edited to remove transit and off-effort tracks. FWC and Mote Marine Laboratory staff members were primary observers for these flights, and dual observers (two observers, one in the front seat and one in the rear seat) were present on some or all of the survey flights. The survey area includes the Indian River Lagoon from the Jupiter Inlet to A1A in New Smyrna Beach, Florida.</SPAN></P></DIV></DIV></DIV>