Aerial Seabird and Marine Mammal Surveys off Northern California, Oregon, and Washington, 2011-2012
Dates
Start Date
2011-01-19
End Date
2012-09-24
Publication Date
2016-12-22
Citation
Adams, J., Felis, J.J., Mason, J.W., and Takekawa, J.Y., 2016, Pacific Continental Shelf Environmental Assessment (PaCSEA): aerial seabird and marine mammal surveys off northern California, Oregon, and Washington, 2011-2012. GIS Resource Database: U.S. Geological Survey data release, http://dx.doi.org/10.5066/F7668B7V.
Summary
Recent interest has increased related to developing alternative sources of renewable energy to reduce dependence on oil. Some of those sources will include power generation infrastructure and support activities located within continental shelf waters, and potentially within deeper waters off the U.S. Pacific coast and beyond state waters (i.e., outside three nautical miles). Currently, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) is considering renewable energy proposals off the coast of Oregon. The 2011-2012 Pacific Continental Shelf Environmental Assessment (PaCSEA) project is intended to provide new information on species composition, distribution, abundance, seasonal variation, and habitat utilization among marine mammals and seabirds [...]
Summary
Recent interest has increased related to developing alternative sources of renewable energy to reduce dependence on oil. Some of those sources will include power generation infrastructure and support activities located within continental shelf waters, and potentially within deeper waters off the U.S. Pacific coast and beyond state waters (i.e., outside three nautical miles). Currently, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) is considering renewable energy proposals off the coast of Oregon. The 2011-2012 Pacific Continental Shelf Environmental Assessment (PaCSEA) project is intended to provide new information on species composition, distribution, abundance, seasonal variation, and habitat utilization among marine mammals and seabirds within the outer continental shelf of the northern California Current System (NCCS). The NCCS supports abundant populations of seabirds and marine mammals, but comprehensive aerial surveys have not been conducted at all during certain months (i.e., winter) or were conducted two to four decades ago.
During 2011 - 2012, the USGS Western Ecological Research Center completed the Pacific Continental Shelf Environmental Assessment (PaCSEA) aerial survey project. PaCSEA included replicated surveys to quantify seabird and marine mammal distributions over the continental shelf and slope domains from shore to the 2000-meter (m) isobath along 32 broad-scale transects and within six focal area surveys from Fort Bragg, California through Grays Harbor, Washington. This is the first comprehensive, large-scale, multiseasonal aerial survey conducted in this region since the early 1980s and 1990s.
Available for download are a zipped file geodatabase containing two feature classes and two tables, the metadata files for each, and the final report for the project (see below).
Since publication, Aerial survey 3km bin and Aerial survey 7km bin data were edited in January 2017: attribute labels for species name have been converted to species code. The geodatabase is recommended because it has complete names in the attribute table.
Suggested citation: Adams, J., Felis, J.J., Mason, J.W., and Takekawa, J.Y., 2015, Pacific Continental Shelf Environmental Assessment (PaCSEA): aerial seabird and marine mammal surveys off northern California, Oregon, and Washington, 2011-2012. GIS Resource Database: U.S. Geological Survey data release, http://dx.doi.org/10.5066/F7668B7V.
Acknowledgements:
This project was funded by the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management through Interagency Agreement M10PG00081 with the U.S. Geological Survey. The authors of these GIS data require that data users contact them regarding intended use and to assist with understanding limitations and interpretation. Low-elevation aerial survey methods were reviewed by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, National Marine Fisheries Service who granted a Letter of Concurrence (4 January 2011) accepting USGS mitigation measures implemented to avoid marine mammal disturbance. We are especially grateful to the pilots at Aspen Helicopters, Oxnard, CA and Gold Aero, Arlington, WA for their expert ability to conduct safe operations at low elevation, often far from land—over the open ocean. This data release was prepared by an agency of the U.S. Government. Neither the U.S. Government nor any agency thereof, nor any of its employees, make any warranty, expressed or implied, or assume any legal liability or responsibility for the accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of any information, apparatus, product, or process disclosed in this report, or represent that its use would not infringe privately owned rights. Reference therein to any specific commercial product, process, or service by trade name, trademark, manufacturer, or otherwise does not necessarily constitute or imply its endorsement, recommendation, or favoring by the U.S. Government or any agency thereof. No warranty, expressed or implied, is made by the USGS as to the accuracy of the data and related materials. The act of distribution shall not constitute any such warranty, and no responsibility is assumed by the USGS in the use of these data or related materials.
These data support the following report:
Adams, J., J. Felis, J. W. Mason, and J. Y. Takekawa. 2014. Pacific Continental Shelf
Environmental Assessment (PaCSEA): aerial seabird and marine mammal surveys off northern California, Oregon, and Washington, 2011-2012. U.S. Dept. of the Interior, Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Pacific OCS Region, Camarillo, CA. OCS Study BOEM 2014-003. 266 pages.
Our three primary objectives were to (1) conduct aerial at-sea surveys of seabirds and marine mammals in shelf and slope waters off northern California, Oregon, and Washington and summarize species and seasonal at-sea densities (seabirds) and occurrance (marine mammals), (2) conduct a comparison with existing similar survey datasets off northern California, Oregon, and Washington, and (3) use telemetry information to validate and enhance aerial survey data for numerically abundant indicator species and certain resident breeding and non-resident migratory seabird species.
Rights
The authors of these data require that data users contact them regarding intended use and to assist with understanding limitations and interpretation. Unless otherwise stated, all data, metadata and related materials are considered to satisfy the quality standards relative to the purpose for which the data were collected. Although these data and associated metadata have been reviewed for accuracy and completeness and approved for release by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), no warranty expressed or implied is made regarding the display or utility of the data on any other system or for general or scientific purposes, nor shall the act of distribution constitute any such warranty. Any use of trade, firm, or product names is for descriptive purposes only and does not imply endorsement by the U.S. Government.
