JNCC seabird distribution and abundance data (all trips) from ESAS database

Keywords: Observation, Occurrence, Occurrence,Vessels,Sightings,seabirds; seabird; sea; ESAS; marine; mammal; cetacean; turtle; offshore; ocean;
Temporal coverage: 1979/2000

Original provider:
European Seabirds at Sea

Dataset credits:
Joint Nature Conservation Committee (United Kingdom)
Nederlands Instituut voor Onderzoek der Zee (the Netherlands)
Ornis Consult (Denmark)
National Institute for Coastal and Marine Management/RIKZ (the Netherlands)
Nederlands Zeevogelgroep (the Netherlands)
Instituut voor Bos- en Natuuronderzoek (the Netherlands)
Instituut voor Natuur Behoud (Belgium)
National Environmental Research Institute (Denmark)
Norsk Institutt for Naturforskning (Norway)
Vogelwarte Helgoland (Germany)

Abstract:
The European Seabirds at Sea (ESAS) database was established in 1991 as a collaboration between individuals and institutes who had collected data on the distribution of seabirds and marine mammals in north-west European offshore areas. The most recent version of this database contains over two million records which were collected over 25 years.

Purpose:
The founding aim of this project was to merge data from different collaborators and use these to publish an atlas depicting vulnerable concentrations of seabirds to oil pollution. Subsequently, these data have been used for a wide variety of research purposes. The collaboration has also developed and defined common standards in data capture, processing and storage.

Supplemental information:
[2020-10-01] The following invalid species names were corrected according to the Integrated Taxonomic Information System (ITIS).
Larus ridibundus (176835) =&gt; Chroicocephalus ridibundus (824041)
Corvus monedula (179746) =&gt; Coloeus monedula (916629)
Little Gull: Larus minutus (176840) =&gt; Hydrocoloeus minutus (824065)
Little Tern: Sterna albifrons (176899) =&gt; Sternula albifrons (824126)
Mediterranean Gull: Larus melanocephalus (176858) =&gt; Ichthyaetus melanocephalus (824070)
Red Phalarope: Phalaropus fulicaria (554376) =&gt; Phalaropus fulicarius (176734)
Sandwich Tern: Sterna sandvicensis (176927) =&gt; Thalasseus sandvicensis (176932)
Turtles: Testudines (173749) =&gt; Testudines (948936)
Phylloscopus sibilatrix (179847) =&gt; Phylloscopus sibillatrix (916708)
Sula bassanus (174711) =&gt; Morus bassanus (174712)
Larus sabini (176865) =&gt; Xema sabini (176866)
Saxicola torquata (554448) =&gt; Saxicola torquatus (726114)

[2015-03-24] A few records had a wrong animal count of zero. The value is replaced with a blank representing species presence only.

This dataset represents a subset of version 4.1 of the ESAS database, which is composed of three related tables. As some attributes from the original dataset are dropped in the public view, certain records may appear as duplicate observations. This, however, is not the case, as these records will have varying attribute values in the original database (e.g., age/plumage/behavior, etc.) and should therefore be treated as separate entities.

Species notes:
Species EURING code 462 (noted [sp_obs] field in the dataset) is <i>Puffinus puffinus mauretanicus</i>. As ITIS doesn't register this species, it is represented as <i>Puffinus puffinus</i> (TSN 174555), instead.
Species EURING code 460 (noted the [sp_obs] field in the dataset) is <i>Puffinus puffinus</i> whose counterpart in ITIS is also <i>Puffinus puffinus</i> (TSN 174555).

This dataset includes multiple trips whose survey methods vary. Please consult the data provider for the proper use of the dataset.