Concurrent visual and acoustic surveys for cetaceans were carried out in two survey blocks in the Irish Sea to investigate species distribution, relative abundance and absolute abundance where possible. Single platform line-transect surveys were carried out in the northern Irish Sea in July and in the southern Irish Sea in August 2011. During the two surveys, we carried out 348km of survey effort along 23 track-lines of which 100% of the northern Irish Sea survey and 79% of the southern Irish Sea survey were in sea-state ≤3. We recorded a total of 71 cetacean sightings comprising 111 individuals of two species. In addition there were five seal sightings of two species and a single sighting of a basking shark. Harbour porpoise was by far the most abundant species followed by minke whale. Grey seal was the most frequent seal species with only a single sighting of a common seal.
L o a d i n g
Overviewbiodiversitybiotacetaceanenvironmentirelandmammalmarinemarine faunanational parks and wildlife servicenpwsspecies distribution
Additional Information
KeyValue
Conforms To["The INSPIRE Directive or INSPIRE lays down a general framework for a Spatial Data Infrastructure (SDI) for the purposes of European Community environmental policies and policies or activities which may have an impact on the environment.", "http://www.opengis.net/def/crs/EPSG/0/4326"]
Contact Emaildatadelivery@housing.gov.ie
Contact NameDepartment of Housing, Local Government and Heritage
FrequencyOther
Guidhttps://data.gov.ie/dataset/9eb948cd-6575-4cf4-b533-d37d4dcff63a
Harvest Object Id6dd7ca39-6d7c-4020-abfb-c9e6365e47ce
Harvest Source Id01350574-268d-4abb-b9b4-8108224932c4
Harvest Source Titledata.gov.ie - Environment
Identifier9eb948cd-6575-4cf4-b533-d37d4dcff63a
Issued2022-07-08
Language["http://publications.europa.eu/resource/authority/language/ENG"]
Modified2026-06-03T02:26:50
ProvenanceDuring each transect the position of the survey vessel was tracked continuously through a GPS receiver fed directly into a laptop while survey effort, including environmental conditions (sea-state, wind strength and direction, glare etc.) were recorded directly onto LOGGER software (IFAW) every 15 minutes. When a sighting was made the position of the vessel was recorded immediately in LOGGER and the angle of the sighting from the track of the vessel and the radial distance of the sighting from the vessel recorded. The angle was recorded to the nearest degree via an angle board attached to the vessel immediately in front of each observer. These data were communicated to the recorder in the wheelhouse via two-way radio. Accurate distance estimation is essential for distance sampling. Distance sticks were made for observers using the Heinemann Equation (Heinemann, 1981) which were used to aid distance estimation.
Publisher NameDepartment of Housing, Local Government and Heritage
Publisher Urihttps://data.gov.ie/organization/department-of-housing-planning-community-and-local-government
Spatial{"type":"Polygon","coordinates":[[[-10.650444030762, 50.807923689449],[-10.650444030762, 55.993470564449], [-5.289115905762, 55.993470564449], [-5.289115905762, 50.807923689449], [-10.650444030762, 50.807923689449]]]}
Temporal End2011-12-01
Temporal Start2011-07-01
Theme["http://publications.europa.eu/resource/authority/data-theme/ENVI", "Environment"]
Urihttps://data.gov.ie/dataset/9eb948cd-6575-4cf4-b533-d37d4dcff63a