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Metadata: Sea Mammal Research Unit (SMRU) UK aerial surveys of harbour seals (Phoca vitulina) and grey seals (Halichoerus grypus) during the summer harbour seal moult 2016-2019
Abstract:
The Sea Mammal Research Unit (SMRU) conducts an ongoing programme of aerial surveys along the English and Scottish coastlines during the harbour seal (Phoca vitulina) summer moult. These surveys are funded by the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC National Capability Funding, Grant Numbers SMRU10001 and NE/R015007/1), NatureScot, formerly Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH), and Natural England. To monitor harbour seal numbers, individuals onshore are counted in August, during their annual moult season, when animals generally spend more time hauled out. Such moult season counts tend to be slightly higher and more consistent than at other times of year. Grey seals (Halichoerus grypus) are also counted during these summer surveys, but their distribution can change more throughout the year because they congregate in breeding colonies during the autumn. These aerial surveys are conducted within 2 hours of low water using either a helicopter or fixed-wing aircraft. No surveying is carried out during periods with prolonged rain or heavy showers. The helicopter surveys began in 1988 and cover a different area each year. A full round of Scotland usually takes 3-5 years to complete. This dataset covers the 2016-2019 round of helicopter surveys that used multi-sensor (infrared, high-resolution DSLR, and video) gimbal-led imaging. Parts of the Moray Firth as well as the Firth of Tay and Eden Estuary Special Area of Conservation (SAC) are surveyed annually. Almost all the seals here haul out on sandbanks, which makes them much easier to spot. For that reason, less expensive fixed-wing aircraft and hand-held photography can be used. The same applies to the main harbour seal areas in England. Each year, SMRU performs fixed-wing surveys of the coastlines of Lincolnshire and Norfolk between Donna Nook and Scroby Sands. Less frequently, SMRU also surveys the Thames Estuary from Felixstowe to Goodwin Sands (fixed wing 2018 and 2019), the East Coast from around Coquet Island to Flamborough Head (fixed-wing 2016), and the Berwickshire and North Northumberland Coast SAC (helicopter 2018). The presence/absence and counts of hauled-out individuals from each of the years from 2016 to 2019 have been aggregated using the cells of a 5 km x 5 km UTM zone 30N (EPSG:32630) grid. Mean values are given for cells surveyed more than once in a single season. No value is reported if only part of the intertidal zone within a given cell was surveyed during a given year.
Data holder:
Data Archive for Seabed Species and Habitats (DASSH)
Use constraints:
Open access
| Other details | ||
| Internal code | Internally assigned metadata identifier | 2039 |
| Title | The title is used to provide a brief and precise description of the dataset such as 'Date', 'Originating organisation/programme', 'Location' and 'Type of survey'. All acronyms and abbreviations should be reproduced in full. | Sea Mammal Research Unit (SMRU) UK aerial surveys of harbour seals (Phoca vitulina) and grey seals (Halichoerus grypus) during the summer harbour seal moult 2016-2019 |
| File Identifier | The File Identifier is a code, preferably a GUID, that is globally unique and remains with the same metadata record even if the record is edited or transferred between portals or tools. | 8a49f8180b921c8dab6b6252d02c4b31 |
| Resource Identifier | This is the code assigned by the data owner. | SMRU_Pv-M_2016-2019 |
| Resource type | The resource type will likely be a dataset but could also be a series (collection of datasets with a common specification) or a service. | dataset |
| Start date | This describes the date the resource starts. This may only be the year if month and day are not known | 2016-08-01 |
| End date | This describes the date the resource ends. This may only be the year if month and day are not known | 2019-08-22 |
| Spatial resolution | This describes the spatial resolution of the dataset or the spatial limitations of the service. | inapplicable |
| Frequency of updates | This describes the frequency with which the resource is modified or updated i.e. a monitoring programme that samples once per year has a frequency that is described as 'annually'. | notPlanned |
| Abstract | The abstract provides a clear and brief statement of the content of the resource. | The Sea Mammal Research Unit (SMRU) conducts an ongoing programme of aerial surveys along the English and Scottish coastlines during the harbour seal (Phoca vitulina) summer moult. These surveys are funded by the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC National Capability Funding, Grant Numbers SMRU10001 and NE/R015007/1), NatureScot, formerly Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH), and Natural England. To monitor harbour seal numbers, individuals onshore are counted in August, during their annual moult season, when animals generally spend more time hauled out. Such moult season counts tend to be slightly higher and more consistent than at other times of year. Grey seals (Halichoerus grypus) are also counted during these summer surveys, but their distribution can change more throughout the year because they congregate in breeding colonies during the autumn. These aerial surveys are conducted within 2 hours of low water using either a helicopter or fixed-wing aircraft. No surveying is carried out during periods with prolonged rain or heavy showers. The helicopter surveys began in 1988 and cover a different area each year. A full round of Scotland usually takes 3-5 years to complete. This dataset covers the 2016-2019 round of helicopter surveys that used multi-sensor (infrared, high-resolution DSLR, and video) gimbal-led imaging. Parts of the Moray Firth as well as the Firth of Tay and Eden Estuary Special Area of Conservation (SAC) are surveyed annually. Almost all the seals here haul out on sandbanks, which makes them much easier to spot. For that reason, less expensive fixed-wing aircraft and hand-held photography can be used. The same applies to the main harbour seal areas in England. Each year, SMRU performs fixed-wing surveys of the coastlines of Lincolnshire and Norfolk between Donna Nook and Scroby Sands. Less frequently, SMRU also surveys the Thames Estuary from Felixstowe to Goodwin Sands (fixed wing 2018 and 2019), the East Coast from around Coquet Island to Flamborough Head (fixed-wing 2016), and the Berwickshire and North Northumberland Coast SAC (helicopter 2018). The presence/absence and counts of hauled-out individuals from each of the years from 2016 to 2019 have been aggregated using the cells of a 5 km x 5 km UTM zone 30N (EPSG:32630) grid. Mean values are given for cells surveyed more than once in a single season. No value is reported if only part of the intertidal zone within a given cell was surveyed during a given year. |
| Lineage | Lineage includes the background information, history of the sources of data, data quality statements and methods. | This resource has been registered with GBIF, and assigned the following GBIF UUID: 9eb25ecc-9641-47fe-949e-b72a8e07f9a2. Marine Biological Association publishes this resource, and is itself registered in GBIF as a data publisher endorsed by National Biodiversity Network. The two SMRU Harbour Seal Moult Surveys (SMRUPv-M) programmes under which the gridded counts presented in this 2016â??2019 dataset were collected are the SMRU Harbour Seal Moult Surveys Scotland (SMRUPv-MSCO 1968â??present) and the SMRU Harbour Seal Moult Surveys England (SMRUPv-M_ENG 1988â??present). The UKDMOS directoryâ??s entry for the Estimation of Harbour Seal Population Size Observing Programme (EDIOS programme ID 10173) contains some further information about this work, the legislative drivers, and other related projects (visit http://www.ukdmos.org/ and search the directory for 10173). DOI can be found at http://doi.org/10.17031/671669a679893 |
| Additional information | This describes relevant references to the data e.g. reports, articles, websites plus other useful information not captured elsewhere. | http://www.ukdmos.org/ and search the directory for 10173 |
| Related keywords | ||
| Keyword | General subject area(s) associated with the resource, uses multiple controlled vocabularies | Marine Environmental Data and Information Network |
| General subject area(s) associated with the resource, uses multiple controlled vocabularies | NDGO0005 | |
| Keyword title | data.gov.uk | |
| Keyword | General subject area(s) associated with the resource, uses multiple controlled vocabularies | Species distribution |
| General subject area(s) associated with the resource, uses multiple controlled vocabularies | Seal abundance | |
| General subject area(s) associated with the resource, uses multiple controlled vocabularies | Marine | |
| Geographical coverage | ||
| North | The northern-most limit of the data resource in decimal degrees | 60.87 |
| East | The eastern-most limit of the data resource in decimal degrees | 1.88 |
| South | The southern-most limit of the data resource in decimal degrees | 51.14 |
| West | The western-most limit of the data resource in decimal degrees | -7.766 |
| Responsible organisations | ||
| Role | The point of contact is person or organisation with responsibility for the creation and maintenance of the metadata for the resource. | pointOfContact |
| Organisation name | Sea Mammal Research Unit (SMRU) | |
| Phone | +44 (0)1334 462630 | |
| Delivery point | Gatty Marine Laboratory University of St Andrews | |
| Postal code | KY16 8LB | |
| City | St Andrews | |
| smru@st-andrews.ac.uk | ||
| Role | The distributor is the person or organisation that distributes the resource. | distributor |
| Organisation name | Data Archive for Seabed Species and Habitats (DASSH) | |
| Position name | Data Manager | |
| Phone | 01752 633102 | |
| Fax | 01752 633291 | |
| Delivery point | Marine Biological Association of the UK, The Laboratory, Citadel Hill | |
| Postal code | PL1 2PB | |
| City | Plymouth | |
| dassh.enquiries@mba.ac.uk | ||
| Role | The originator is the person or organisation who created, collected or produced the resource. | originator |
| Organisation name | Sea Mammal Research Unit (SMRU) | |
| Phone | +44 (0)1334 462630 | |
| Delivery point | Gatty Marine Laboratory University of St Andrews | |
| Postal code | KY16 8LB | |
| City | St Andrews | |
| smru@st-andrews.ac.uk | ||
| Role | The custodian is the person or organisation that accepts responsibility for the resource and ensures appropriate care and maintenance. If a dataset has been lodged with a Data Archive Centre for maintenance then this organisation is be entered here. | custodian |
| Organisation name | Data Archive for Seabed Species and Habitats (DASSH) | |
| Position name | Data Manager | |
| Phone | 01752 633102 | |
| Fax | 01752 633291 | |
| Delivery point | Marine Biological Association of the UK, The Laboratory, Citadel Hill | |
| Postal code | PL1 2PB | |
| City | Plymouth | |
| dassh.enquiries@mba.ac.uk | ||
| Resource locators | ||
| Locator URL | Web address (URL) that links to the resource | https://doi.org/10.17031/671669a679893 |
| Locator name | Name of the web resource | DOI link |
| Locator URL | Web address (URL) that links to the resource | http://https://www.dassh.ac.uk/ |
| Locator name | Name of the web resource | DASSH Website |
| Dataset constraints | ||
| 20 Limitations on Public Access - Access constraints | otherRestrictions | |
| 20 Limitations on Public Access - Other constraints | This states any limitations on access to the data and uses free text. | Open access |
| 21 Conditions for Access and Use - Use limitation | This states any constraints on use of the data. Multiple conditions can be recorded for different parts of the data resource. If no conditions apply, then `No condtions apply` is recorded. This uses free text. | CC-BY: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ |
| Version info | ||
| Date of publication | The publication date of the resource or if previously unpublished the date that the resource was made publicly available via the MEDIN network. | 2023-05-16 |
| Date of last revision | The most recent date that the resource was revised. | 2019-08-22 |
| Date of creation | The date that the resource was created. | 2019-08-22 |
| Harvest date | The date which this record has been (re)harvested from the provider. | 2026-04-19 |
| Metadata date | The date when the content of this metadata record was last updated. | 2025-02-06 |
| Metadata standard name | The name of the metadata standard used to create this metadata | MEDIN Discovery metadata standard |
| Metadata standard version | The version of the MEDIN Discovery Metadata Standard used to create the metadata record | 2.3.8 |