There are many advantages to meta-analysis of wildlife data from multiple studies, including larger sample sizes and the ability to assess broader spatial or temporal variations in observed patterns. However, for such analysis to be possible, data must be publicly available.

All boat-based survey and high resolution digital video aerial survey data from the Mid-Atlantic Baseline Studies and Maryland projects are accessible to regulators, developers, and other stakeholders via this website (below).

Data are also included in the Northwest Atlantic Seabird Catalog, a federal database managed by the USFWS that is used by BOEM and other agencies as a key repository for wildlife distribution data on the Atlantic Outer Continental Shelf (for more information, contact: Kaycee Coleman, Database Manager, Division of Migratory Birds, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Laurel, MD 20708, kaycee_coleman AT fws.gov).

This geodatabase includes data from 15 high resolution digital video aerial surveys in the mid-Atlantic region (2012-2014), conducted by HiDef Aerial Surveying, Ltd., Biodiversity Research Institute, and other partners. The geographic scope of surveys and some details of data collection varied over time, most notably with the addition of the Maryland Project surveys in 2013-2014; please refer to the associated metadata and these projects’ final reports for more information.

This geodatabase includes data from 16 boat-based surveys in the mid-Atlantic region (2012-2014), conducted by the College of Staten Island, Biodiversity Research Institute, and Capt. Brian Patteson, Inc. The geographic scope of surveys varied somewhat over time, most notably with the addition of the Maryland Project surveys in 2013-2014; please refer to the associated metadata and these projects’ final reports for more information.

Satellite telemetry studies are still ongoing, but a portion of the Surf Scoter data are viewable on www.seaturtle.org. Additional data will be made publicly available once these collaborative, long-term tracking projects are completed. Please refer to the final report for the Mid-Atlantic Baseline Studies project for more information.

This geodatabase contains the predictive data layers used in the published journal article,
Predicting the offshore distribution and abundance of marine birds with a hierarchical community distance sampling model. The database includes data in raster format for total predicted abundance of the marine bird community as well as for each species. Each cell of the raster file represents the number of birds predicted to be in that specific location. The database also includes boat survey transects as used for conducting analysis (as full transects, and broken into 4 km segments with covariate information), and NOAA’s coastal relief model (bathymetry) data.

Citation: Goyert, H.F., Gardner, B., Sollmann, R., Veit, R.R., Gilbert, A.T., Connelly, E.E., Williams, K.A., 2016. Predicting the offshore distribution and abundance of marine birds with a hierarchical community distance sampling model. Ecological Applications 26, 1797–1815. https://esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1890/15-1955.1