Revision of Bahamas Marine Mammal Research Organization from Tue, 2015-02-03 13:06

The Bahamas Marine Mammal Research Organization makes five datasets available through OBIS; Aerial, Opportunistic Sightings, On-transect Sightings, Strandings, Turtles. Each dataset is formated similarly and can be downloaded as one inclusice dataset from OBIS. The data includes species name, individual count, lat/lon, and some environmental correlates like depth and salinity.

Dataset Location: Metadata, OBIS BMMRO Aerial Sightings; OBIS BMMRO On-Transect Sightings; OBIS BMMRO Opportunistic Sightings; OBIS BMMRO Strandings; OBIS BMMRO Turtle Sightings

Site Location: Bahamas coastal marine habitat; Nearest City - Marsh Harbour, Abaco

Site(s) Georeferenced: Yes

Timespan: 1944 - 2011, most since 1991

Sampling Frequency: Irregularly

Data Collection Summary / Methods: Most records were made as systematic boat-based surveys relying on visual observations. Often photographs are taken along with visual sighting. Photo-identification techniques help identify individual whales and dolphins and determine abundance estimates and occupancy patterns. Photographic sampling is complemented by the collection of skin and faecal samples for molecular genetic analysis, which are being used to assess levels of genetic diversity and investigate the structuring of marine mammal populations. The data set includes five categories of sightings: aerial, on-transect, opportunistic, strandings, and turtles. More details about the research can be found at http://bahamaswhales.org/research/index.html

'Aerial sightings' are taken from helicopter(?) and represent a subset of the data that includes marine mammal sightings between 1988 and 2005, including sightings reported from the public.

'On-transect sightings' are sightings and encounters made along transect tracklines. The data is a subset of marine mammal sightings between 1988 and 2005, including sightings reported from the public, and a subset of 1,934 BMMS vessel encounters with marine mammals between 1991 and 2005. A sighting ocurrs when the research vessel was unable to close in on the group of animals while an encounter ocurrs when closing was successful and photographs / video recording of the animals were obtained.

'Opportunistic sightings' are similar to the on-transect sightings execpt for the sighting or encounter ocurring when the vessel was off-transect.

'Strandings' record alive or dead marine mammals that are washed on-shore. The dataincludes 89 stranding records between 1944 and 2005, including 15 species.

'Turtles' record sightings of marine turtle species, including 101 sightings of 3 different species between 1991 and 2005.

Data collected: species name, individual count, date, location, temperature, depth, salinity, nitrogen, oxygen, silicate

Known Issues: To obtain this dataset you must use the interactive data mapper and make multiple clicks to orient and dowload data. May be difficult to locate quickly or with an automated program.

Opportunistig sighting data from 2006-2008 did not include group size estimates and ""1"" was used to be conservative.

Effort transects are only available for 3/11/1997-10/1/2008.

Stranding records have no time recorded and time was filled with 12:00:00. Some records do not have the exact date.

Best Practices: tips for separating the wheat from the chaff
 
Conditions for use: Public access with recognition of data author, OBIS-SEAMAP Terms of Use

Citation/ Distributing Author: Dunn, C. 2012. Bahamas Marine Mammal Research Organisation, unpublished data
 
Supplemental resources: http://bahamaswhales.org/resources/publications.html
 
Available via the EcoData Retriever: No