Aerial survey observations of Pacific herring biomass, marine birds, and marine mammals in Prince William Sound, Alaska, 2008-2019

Aerial surveys in Prince William Sound to document spring herring biomass have been conducted since the early 1970’s. This zip file contains geospatial files, xml files, and databases collected during aerial surveys to document Pacific herring biomass in the Prince William Sound Area, Alaska, 2008-2...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Haught, Stormy, Moffitt, Steve
Format: Dataset
Language:English
Published: Axiom Data Science 2020
Subjects:
Online Access:https://dx.doi.org/10.24431/rw1k43z
https://search.dataone.org/#view/10.24431/rw1k43z
Description
Summary:Aerial surveys in Prince William Sound to document spring herring biomass have been conducted since the early 1970’s. This zip file contains geospatial files, xml files, and databases collected during aerial surveys to document Pacific herring biomass in the Prince William Sound Area, Alaska, 2008-2019. Because of interest in herring predators, additional effort has been placed on documenting numbers and locations of sea lions, humpback whales, Orca whales, Dall porpoises, and marine bird aggregations associated with herring schools or spawn. Zip files containing geospatial files, xml files, and databases with marine mammal and marine bird sightings during aerial surveys are also included in this data package. Regular surveys are conducted mid-March to mid-May each year to coincide with spring Pacific herring spawning events. Two observers generally split the duties as follows: one observer collected data on the ESRI Arcpad application, and the second observer collected data on paper maps and photographed spawn, herring schools; and marine mammal or seabird observations. Measurements made during the survey include estimating the linear extent of milt, estimating the biomass of herring schools from surface area, estimating the number of individuals by species for marine mammals and birds, and the GPS survey routes made by the airplane.