IMIS - Marine Research Groups

A multi-institutional, marine protected species monitoring program, involving aerial, vessel and acoustic surveillance techniques, has been implemented at the proposed Under Sea Warfare Training Range (USWTR) offshore of Jacksonville, Florida. Ten 87 km track-lines spaced 6.5 km apart transect the 1295 km2 USWTR box, which is located between 60 and 150 km offshore. Aerial surveys were flown in a Cessna Skymaster at 300 m altitude and 185 km/h. A total of 155 track-lines (13,485 km) were surveyed, the majority flown in low Beaufort sea state (BSS) conditions (92% in BSS 3 or lower) to maximize sighting conditions. The original survey data are separated into two datasets, from left and right observers. This dataset is from the left side sightings data. The right side sightings data are available on OBIS-SEAMAP in the USWTR JAX Aerial Survey -Right side- 2009-2010 dataset.