This dataset, from the North Atlantic Right Whale (NARW) Consortium, shows the sightings per unit effort of the North Atlantic Right Whale.The North Atlantic Right Whale Consortium consists of a number of both non-governmental and governmental organizations and individuals in the United States and Canada who work to study and conserve North Atlantic Right Whales. The data are summarized based on all sightings obtained by the NARW program within a 5 x 5 minute grid of latitude and longitude between November and April from 2002-2010.
This GIS data set was created for the purpose of describing the distribution and relative abundance of right whales in coastal waters (NC - FL) so that this endangered species can be considered with respect to coastal use activities.
Original data
Neither the State of South Carolina, the Department of Natural Resources, nor any of its employees, is responsible for any improper or incorrect use of the information described and/or contained herein, and assume no responsibility for the use of the information. The North American Right Whale Consortium should be acknowledged as the data source in products derived from these data. North Atlantic Right Whale Consortium: "Raw sighting data from the NARWC database are not effort-corrected and the management documents in which they are used are not peer reviewed. Distributional patterns based on these data are likely to be biased by where, and when, surveys were conducted."
215 South Ferry Road
GIS processing: 1.) One point layer per species was created where each point was the mid-point of a 5 x 5 minute grid cell where there was NARW data between 2001 and 2011. A 5 x 5 min. grid of the whole offshore study area was created. 3.) A spatial selection was performed to select those 5 x 5 min. grid cells that contained NARW data assigned to the grid cell mid-points. A new layer was created with just the selected grid cells. 4.) The mid-points from the species layer were spatially joined to the 5 x 5 min. grid layer to create a final gridded layer with one value/grid (e.g. SPUE). For the join, the point layer was joined to the grid polygon layer. 5.) Deleted unnecessary attribute columns. 6.) Exported the joined layer to the final geodatabase.
217 Fort Johnson Rd.
To calculate effort, the whole study area was gridded into 5 x 5 min grids. The line of each survey was split into each of these grids. The total length of all lines (or portion of lines) in a grid were summed over all years to come up with effort for each grid. To calculate sightings, all points within a grid were summed across all years.
Dataset moved.
Internal feature number.
ESRI
Feature geometry.
ESRI
Effort is the kilometers of combined trackline in sea states of Beaufort 3 or lower, with visibility at least two nautical miles, at least one observer on watch, and altitude less than 1200 feet.
Total number of right whale sightings, summed across all years. Note: Animals recorded as stranded or floating dead are excluded, as are those with identification coded as "unsure".
Total number of whales sighted.
SPUE is sightings per unit effort, in units of whales per 1000 km of valid survey track. That is the effort-adjusted relative abundance index.
Length of feature in internal units.
ESRI
Area of feature in internal units squared.
ESRI
Rembert C. Dennis Building P.O. Box 167
See access and use constraints information.
P.O. Box 12559