Several bureaus within the Department of Interior compiled available information from seabird observation datasets from the
Atlantic Outer Continental Shelf into a single database, with the goal of conducting research and informing coastal and offshore
planning activities. The cooperators were the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management's (BOEM) Environmental Studies Program (http://www.boem.gov/Environmental-Stewardship/Environmental-Studies/Environmental-Studies.aspx),
the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's (USFWS) Division of Migratory Bird Management (http://www.fws.gov/migratorybirds/) and
the U.S. Geological Survey's (USGS) Patuxent Wildlife Research Center (http://www.pwrc.usgs.gov). The resulting product is
the Atlantic Offshore Seabird Dataset Catalog, which characterizes the survey effort and bird observations that have been
collected across space and time. As of December 2013, the database contains over 70 datasets from 1906-2013 with about 300,000
records of seabird observations. Data were initially provided as summary web mapping services, with web feature services (for
downloading and looking at single-species data) at the linkage given elsewhere in this document. A full archive of the scientific
data is available at the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) National Oceanographic Data Center (NODC).
The data archived at NODC is comprised of roughly 50 datasets from 1938-2013 with about 260,000 observation records. This
archive is a subset of the main database, excluding datasets from surveys where the scientific design was not specifically
designed to sample marine birds (e.g. coastal portions of National Audubon Society's Christmas Bird Counts).
As of December 2013, the database holds over 70 datasets from 1906-2009 with over 300,000 records of seabird observations.
Summary maps provided as web services (see linkage) include representations of survey effort and bird detections. Effort was
standardized into "five minute equivalents" so that both discrete and continuous transect data could be combined. This unit
is essentially "five minutes of survey effort from a vessel traveling 10 knots". Species data were prepared for occurrence
maps by adjusting counts using these five minute equivalents. The resulting species maps are referred to as "Naive occurrence
maps" because, although some effort standardization has been applied, there are no corrections for biases introduced by differences
in survey methodology, observers, and species detectability.The full archive of scientific data is available for download
from the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) National Oceanographic Data Center (NODC) contains information
on individual observations as well as survey effort. Each observation record has a unique point location, date and time, species
and observation count. There may also be biological information related to the sighting, such as animal age or behavior. The
survey effort information (i.e. weather variables) may have been recorded for each individual observation but was more often
recorded at the transect (line along which the plane or boat traveled) level. The dataset contains data primarily for seabirds,
but some other observations accompanied bird data submissions and were not discarded: marine mammals, turtles, fish, and non-biological
sightings such as other boats, fishing gear and trash.