An aerial survey of harbour and grey seals in Ireland: Part 2: Galway Bay to Carlingford Lough

Category: Environment
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On August and September 2012, the Sea Mammal Research Unit (SMRU) of the University of St Andrews carried out an aerial survey of moulting harbour seals (Phoca vitulina, also known as common seals) in the west, south-west, south and east of Ireland, between Galway Bay and Carlingford Lough. This was the completion of a survey of seals around the whole of Ireland that started in August 2011, when the coast from Lough Foyle to Galway Bay was surveyed (Duck & Morris, 2012). Although the primary aim of this survey was to count harbour seals hauled out ashore, grey seals (Halichoerus grypus) were also counted.

The 2011 and 2012 surveys were undertaken in order to update information from a previous nationwide aerial seal survey carried out in August 2003 (Cronin et al., 2004; Cronin et al., 2007). The surveys incorporated improved techniques which resulted in more accurate species identification and, consequently, more accurate final counts compared with the 2003 survey. This should be kept in mind when interpreting any differences in counts from the two surveys.

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Theme Environment
Date released 2022-06-24
Date updated 2023-11-30
Dataset conforms to these standards The INSPIRE Directive or INSPIRE lays down a general framework for a Spatial Data Infrastructure (SDI) for the purposes of European Community environmental policies and policies or activities which may have an impact on the environment.
Rights notes {http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/,"Copyright Government of Ireland. This dataset was created by National Parks and Wildlife Service, Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage. This copyright material is licensed for re-use under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International licence. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",otherRestrictions}
Update frequency Other
Language English
Geographic coverage in GeoJSON format {"type":"Polygon","coordinates":[[[-10.650444030762, 50.807923689449],[-10.650444030762, 55.993470564449], [-5.289115905762, 55.993470564449], [-5.289115905762, 50.807923689449], [-10.650444030762, 50.807923689449]]]}
Spatial Reference Systems (SRS) WGS 84 (EPSG:4326)
Vertical Extent {"verticalDomainName": "EPSG Projection 5731 - Malin Head height", "minVerticalExtent": "0", "maxVerticalExtent": "1014"}
Provenance information Species identification and counts were derived from high resolution still photographs taken of all seals encountered. The locations of groups of seals were derived from comparing satellite imagery with still photos (containing GPS coordinates) and video footage recorded during each sighting, and placed on a digital GIS map containing mean high water and mean low water shapefiles, as well as satellite imagery. The survey covered the entire coast of counties Clare, Limerick, Kerry, Cork, Waterford, Wexford, Wicklow, Dublin, Meath, Louth and parts of Galway including the Aran Islands nor covered in 2011.
Period of time covered (begin) 2012-08-01
Period of time covered (end) 2012-09-30