Seabird Monitoring undertaken during the Western European Shelf Pelagic Acoustic Survey (WESPAS) 2021

Published by: Department of Housing, Local Government, and Heritage

Licensed under: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0

Category: Environment

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Under the EU Birds Directive, there is a requirement on member states to conduct surveillance of seabirds occurring within their waters. A standard line transect survey methodology was employed by the seabird observer with additional visual point sampling at fishing locations and oceanographic sampling stations. Survey transects were undertaken at speeds of 5-10 knots, with fishing activity being conducted at speeds of 2-3 knots. The seabird observer’s survey effort was maximized and optimized during periods of sea state less than or equal to sea state 6 and with visibility of greater than 300m. A total of 7210 seabird observations were recorded throughout the survey, totalling 32229 individuals. In total, 12391 seabirds were recorded as “in transect”, while 19838 were recorded “off transect”. The species encountered included 26 species from eight families. A further 21 observations of terrestrial/migratory birds were also recorded, comprising of 79 individuals.

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Theme	Environment
Date released	2023-03-29
Date updated	2023-11-14
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	{https://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":[[[-18.427734375, 51.533267498016],[-18.427734375, 58.740298748015995], [-6.298828125, 58.740298748015995], [-6.298828125, 51.533267498016], [-18.427734375, 51.533267498016]]]}
Spatial Reference Systems (SRS)	WGS 84 (EPSG:4326)
Vertical Extent	{"verticalDomainName": "EPSG Projection 5731 - Malin Head height", "minVerticalExtent": "0", "maxVerticalExtent": "1014"}
Provenance information	The Cybertracker (https://cybertracker.org) data collection software package (Version 3.514) was configured for optimum use on the survey. Cybertracker was used to record all positional, environmental and seabird observation data. Using a portable GPS receiver with USB connection, the Cybertracker software automatically recorded the ships position directly into a Microsoft Access database every 5 seconds. Environmental data was regularly recorded using Cybertracker, including at the start of each seabird survey transect, and included data such as; wind speed, wind direction, sea state, swell, visibility, cloud cover and precipitation. The data was time stamped with GPS data by Cybertracker and saved in the Access database. If environmental conditions changed at any point, the seabird observer recorded an environmental update of the above listed data. Each line transect was assigned a unique transect number, and a new transect was started anytime the vessel activity changed (i.e. changing from on-transect to inter-transect). Each subsequent seabird observation was also assigned to this unique transect number. Ancillary information (such as line changes, changes in survey activity, other vessel activity, etc.) were also recorded on Cybertracker. The GPS position of each seabird record was time stamped and digitally marked using Cybertracker. Observational data such as; species identification, distance band, group size, composition, heading, age, moult, behaviour and any associations with cetaceans or other vessels were also recorded on the time stamped Cybertracker sighting record page. Where species identification could not be confirmed, observations were recorded at an appropriate taxonomic level (i.e. large gull sp., Larus sp., commic tern, etc.). Additional visual point sampling was conducted at oceanographic sampling stations and fishing shoot/haul locations. Point sampling survey effort for seabirds was conducted in 360 o arc around the vessel. Data recording methodology remained similar for both point sampling and line transect methods.
Period of time covered (begin)	2021-06-10
Period of time covered (end)	2021-07-19