This README_LIVE_Project_Cetacean_data.txt file was generated on 2022-12-09 by Christina Winkler

GENERAL INFORMATION

1. Title of Dataset: 
	Cetacean data collected through land-based effort watches, opportunistic boat surveys and IWDG reports

2. Author Information
	A. Principal Investigator Contact Information
	Name: Christina Winkler
	Institution: University College Cork
	Address: College Rd, Cork City, Co. Cork, Ireland
	Email: 

3. Date of data collection: 
	2020-08-22 - 2022-09-30

4. Geographic location of data collection: 
	Iveragh Peninsula, Co. Kerry, Ireland (51.919479°, -10.071321°)

5. Information about funding sources that supported the collection of the data: 
	Funding was provided, in parts, by the Ireland Wales cooperation programme.

SHARING/ACCESS INFORMATION

1. Licenses/restrictions placed on the data: 
	None

2. Was data derived from another source? 
	The environmental data were derived from freely available data provided by the Marine Institute, Met Éireann, Geological Survey 		Ireland, European Marine Observation and Data Network. Sighting and stranding data not gathered through the LIVE project were 	derived from the Irish Whale and Dolphin Group (IWDG) website.
 
	
DATA & FILE OVERVIEW

1. File List: 

LandEffort.csv
One-year sighting records (Oct 2021 - Sept 2022) of land-based effort watches along Iveragh coast, Co. Kerry, Ireland.
All data collected has been submitted to and validated through the IWDG Sightings Officer, Pádraig Whooley.

BoatEffort.csv
Summer sighting records (July 2022 - Sept 2022) of opportunistic data collection during boat tours along Iveragh coast, Co. Kerry, Ireland. Including evironmental data recorded during sightings.
All sightings data collected has been submitted to and validated through the IWDG.

BoatTracks.csv
Data of GPS location, speed and direction of boat tours in 2022 using GARMIN GPSMAP 64. Time settings are in UTC, except for trksegID 7. No GPS unit was available for trksegID 7, instead locations were recorded using the Collector App of ArcGIS to allow to estimate the route.

NonEffort&IWDGData.csv
Two-year records (Sept 2020 - Sept 2022) of casual cetacean sightings, from land and boat, including LIVE (initiated) and other records data, taken from the IWDG website, including environmental variables recorded at the time of sighting. Also includes few effort watch data collected not through LIVE or after September 2022.

Strandings.csv
Two-year records (Sept 2020 - Sept 2022) of cetacean strandings, including LIVE (initiated) and other records data, taken from the IWDG website.

SimultaneousWatches.csv
Attempt to do simultaneous watches on several locations, but was discontinued.

Legend.csv
Including abreviations for watch sites, species, beaufort scale, visibility and species behaviour.

Hourly_data_for_Buoy_M3.csv
Data on sea surface temperture, measured on Buoy M3 (Met Eireann) from recording start until 2022_09_30.

IrishNationalTideGaugeData.csv
Data on tidal height in Dingle Harbour during the time of the study.


2. Relationship between files, if important: 
	Legend.csv applicable to all files containing cetacean sighting and stranding data, Environmental factors all based on IWDG reporting forms.

3. Additional related data collected that was not included in the current data package: 
	No

METHODOLOGICAL INFORMATION

1. Description of methods used for collection/generation of data: 
	Data was recorded following a standardized protocol to minimize variability between observers and sites, and to obtain a robust 	dataset for analyses. Due to changes in weather watches were spread over the whole month rather than concentrate into one week. The aim was to get at least one watch conducted per month on each site. To reduce bias on tidal influence on cetacean sightings, the times of searches were only based on weather conditions. Environmental factors used to determine suitable watch conditions include sea state, visibility, wind force, wind direction and precipitation and were looked up before the search on several apps including www.windy.com and www.met.ie. Sea state and wind force were recorded using Beaufort scale (Marubini et al., 2009; de Boer et al., 2014).. Searches were preferably carried out in sea state 2 or less and with a visibility of at least 6 to 10km. Some watches however took place in higher sea state. Each watch was 100 minutes long, but if visibility became less than 6km, the watch was terminated. Other environmental factors recorded include swell, cloud cover and glare (degree of area affected).

	Depending on the site, a sighting angle of 90 to 120 degree was used for single observers towards the direction with the most 		unobscured view, e.g. where the horizon is visible (de Boer et al., 2014; Gutiérrez-Muñoz et al., 2021). This was to ensure the search areas were scanned sufficiently enough. Larger angles were used on three sites to minimize blind spots created by using 90-degree angles only. If two or more observers were present, the total angle was extended to cover 180 degree or more. The scan started on either left or right side of the search area and followed along the horizon or nearest coastline. When reaching the opposite site of the search area, the scan continued further below the horizon in the opposite direction and so on, until the whole area was covered. During the scoping the whole area was scanned switching between scope, naked eye and binoculars regularly, to ensure obvious activities are not missed by the restricted field of view of the scope. Sightings outside of the search area were recorded as non-effort sightings. To reduce the introduction of observer bias, the same observer was used for each site, using the same binoculars (USCAMEL 10x50WA). The scope (Optolyth TBS 80 20-60x80/65) was replaced by a Celestron 20-60x80 on the 27th of May 2021. When measuring distance to the cetacean, reticules in the binoculars were used and measurements were recorded in mils. The distance of the observed animal was then calculated based on formulae of Lerczak and Hobbs (1998).

	Besides environmental data and sighting location, time and duration of sighting, observation cue (e.g. splash, blow, fin/back, 		birds), species, group size, calves present or not and observed behaviour were recorded also (Evans and Hammond, 2004; Hammond et al., 2017; Rogan et al., 2018). When species could not be identified, the observation was downgraded to e.g. unidentified dolphin species or cetacean species. To ensure the quality of the records and avoid duplicate sightings, all data were validated by sightings officer of the IWDG, Pádraig Whooley. 	



2. Methods for processing the data: 
	Only sightings in sea state 2 or less were used for analysis to correct for decreasing detection probability in higher sea states (Evans and Hammond, 2004; Berrow, Pádraig Whooley, et al., 2010). Particularly harbour porpoise detection decreases significantly in higher sea states (Palka, 1996; Teilmann, 2003).

	Tidal cycle (categorical, 4 states), tidal phase (categorical, 3 states), tidal height (continuous) and hourly SST (continuous) 	were obtained from www.digitalocean.ie and www.data.gov.ie (Buoy M3) respectively. Tidal data for Dingle harbour was assigned to all watch sites, as data for Castletownbere was missing for the months of October and November 2021 due to maintenance work on the sensor. Data gaps were also found in January and February. Here the missing high and low tides were added using the Tide Tables 2022 from Ciarán O’Carroll, corrected for Dingle Harbour. Tidal cycles were calculated by dividing the difference between the high and low tide around the halftime of each watch by four. One part was assigned high and low tide on each side of high and low tide. The other two parts were either assigned ebb or flood, depending if the water was ascending or descending during the halftime. Tidal phases were assigned, calling two days prior and post of highest tidal height ‘spring’, and two days prior and post to the lowest tidal height ‘neap’. All other days were assigned as transitional days (O’Brien et al., 2019). Bathymetry data was obtained from INFOMAR with a 10m grid. The areas that were not available on that small resolution, a 1/16arc min (ca. 115x115m) resolution from European Marine Observation and Data Network (EMODnet). Seabed habitats were also obtained from EMODnet (www.emodnet-seabedhabitats.eu). The halftime of each watch was used to look up the SST and tidal heights.  Based on the reports of Berrow et al. (2013) and O’Brien (2013), seasons were assigned as following: spring (1) = February to April, summer (2) = May to July, autumn (3) = August to October and winter (4) = November to January.  


DATA-SPECIFIC INFORMATION FOR: LandEffort.csv

1. Variable List: 
	<Survey number> - Individual number for each survey (1 - 120)

	<Date> - Date the survey took place

	<Month> - Month the survey took place (1 - 12)

	<Year> - Year the survey took place (2021 - 2022)

	<Start (HHMM)> - Time the survey started (in hours and minutes)

	<End (HHMM)> - Time the survey ended (in hours and minutes)

	<Site> - Site location, using abbreviations explained in Legend.csv

	<Area (sqkm)> - Size of area observed during survey in square kilometer

	<Observer Lat> - Latitude of observer location during the survey

	<Observer Long> - Longitude of observer location during the survey

	<Observation angles> - Range of angles of the observation area from the view of the observer

	<Angle width> - Total observation angle size

	<SS> - Sea state applicable during most of the watch, based on Beaufort scale

	<Swell> - Swell height based on IWDG reporting form

	<CC> - Cloud cover, based on IWDG reporting form

	<Glare> - Angle size the sun was glaring

	<Visibility> - based on IWDG reporting form

	<WD> - wind direction

	<WF> - wind force, in Beaufort scale

	<Precipitation> - yes or no for rain, fog or snow

	<Tidal cycle> - Ebb, Low, Flood, High

	<Tidal phase> - Spring, Neap, Trans

	<Tidal height> - calculated for the 'half-time' of each watch

 	<Sighting Number> - individual number for each sighting

	<Effort/Non-effort> - was the sighting recorded within (E) or outside (N) the search areas

	<Time> - start time of sighting in HHMM

	<Duration> - for how many minutes the sighting lasted

	<Bearing> - direction of sighting from observation point recorded in degree

 	<Reticules> - distance of sighting from observation point recorded in mils

	<Distance> - distance of sighting converted into metre

	<Lat Sighting> - Latitude of sighting position

	<Long Sighting> - Longitude of sighting position

	<Cue> - initial cue that gave away cetacean presence	

	<Species> - Species identity (common name) for cetaceans observed during watches (see Legend.csv)

	<Min> - minimum number of animals observed during one sighting

	<Max> - maximum number of animals observed during one sighting

	<Best estimate> - best estimate number of animals observed during one sighting

	<Calves present> - how many calves were present during encounter

	<Primary behaviour> - behaviour observed most during the encounter (see Legend.csv)

	<Secondary behaviour> - behaviour observed second most druing encounter (see Legend.csv)

	<Other behaviour> - any other behvaiours observed during encounter (see Legend.csv)

	<Birds present> - were birds present during the encounter (Y/N)

	<Boat acticity> - were boat present in the search area during the watch/ encounters (Y/N)

	<Behaviour comments> - additional comments on observed behaviour

	<Comments> - additional comments on observations during the watch

	<Submitted> - date of record submission to the IWDG

	<Other watchers> - names of people who joined me during effort watches


DATA-SPECIFIC INFORMATION FOR: BoatEffort.csv

1. Variable List: 
	<Boat survey> - number of boat survey

	<Date> - Date the survey took place

	<Start> - time of leaving the harbour in HHMM

	<End> - time of return to the harbour in HHMM

	<Site> - where did the tour take place
	
	<SS> - Sea state applicable during most of the watch, based on Beaufort scale

	<Swell> - Swell height based on IWDG reporting form

	<CC> - Cloud cover, based on IWDG reporting form

	<Glare> - Angle size the sun was glaring

	<Visibility> - based on IWDG reporting form

	<Wind> - wind direction

	<WS> - wind speed in knots

	<WF> - wind force, in Beaufort scale

	<Precipitation> - yes or no for rain, fog or snow

	<Sighting Number> - individual sighting number

	<Time> - start time of sighting in HHMM

	<Duration> - for how many minutes the sighting lasted

	<OPH> - observer height in metre

	<Distance> - distance to the sighting in metre
	
	<Lat Sighting> - Latitude of sighting position

	<Long Sighting> - Longitude of sighting position

	<Cue> - initial cue that gave away cetacean presence	

	<Species> - Species identity (common name) for cetaceans observed during watches (see Legend.csv)

	<Min> - minimum number of animals observed during one sighting

	<Max> - maximum number of animals observed during one sighting

	<Best estimate> - best estimate number of animals observed during one sighting

	<Calves present> - how many calves were present during encounter

	<Primary behaviour> - behaviour observed most during the encounter (see Legend.csv)

	<Secondary behaviour> - behaviour observed second most druing encounter (see Legend.csv)

	<Other behaviour> - any other behvaiours observed during encounter (see Legend.csv)

	<Birds present> - were birds present during the encounter (Y/N)

	<Behaviour comments> - additional comments on observed behaviour

	<Comments> - additional comments on observations during the watch

	<Submitted> - date of record submission to the IWDG


DATA-SPECIFIC INFORMATION FOR: BoatTracks.csv

1. Variable List: 
	<Track ID> - ID number of each recorded position

	<Boat Survey> - survey number, responding to survey numbers in BoatEffort.csv

	<lat> - latitude of boat location

	<lon> - longitude of boat location

	<Date> - date of the survey (DD/MM/YYYY)

	<time> - time when latitude and longitude were recorded (YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SSZ)
	

DATA-SPECIFIC INFORMATION FOR: NonEffort&IWDGData.csv

1. Variable List: 
	<Date> - Date the sighting took place

	<Time> - time of the sighting (HH:MM)

	<Year> - Year the sighting took place (2021 - 2022)

	<Month> - Month the sighting took place (1 - 12)

	<Record> - record number assigned by the IWDG to each individual sighting

	<Reporter> - name(s) of person(s) who reported the sighting to the IWDG

	<Lat> - Latitude of sighting position

	<Long> - Longitude of sighting position

	<Species> - Species identity (common name) for cetaceans observed during watches (see Legend.csv)

	<Platform> - what platform was used, incl. boat types

	<L/B> - land or boat based abreviations of platform

	<Location> - area where sighting was recorded or headland from where watch was done

	<Duration> - for how many minutes the sighting lasted

	<No. animals> - best estimate number of animals observed during one sighting

	<Calves> - how many calves were present during encounter

	<Comments> - additional comments on observations during the watch

	<Behaviour> - behaviours observed during the encounter (see Legend.csv)

	<SS> - Sea state applicable during most of the watch, based on Beaufort scale

	<CC> - Cloud cover, based on IWDG reporting form

	<Visibility> - based on IWDG reporting form

	<Swell> - Swell height based on IWDG reporting form

	<WF> - wind force, in Beaufort scale

	<WD> - wind direction

	<Glare> - Angle size the sun was glaring

	<Precipitation> - yes or no for rain, fog or snow

	<Water depth> - depth at the sighting position, in metre

	<Birds> - were birds present during the encounter (Y/N)

	<Cue> - initial cue that gave away cetacean presence	

	<Optics> - which optics were used for the sighting/watch (binoculars, scope)

	<Effort> - was the sighting recorded during an effort watch (Y/N)

	<Boat> - who's boat was used for the boat tour/ name of boat

	<START> - starting time of the effort watch (HH:MM)
 
	<END> - finishing time of the effort watch (HH:MM)

 	<LIVE> - was it a LIVE (initiated) report (Y/N)


DATA-SPECIFIC INFORMATION FOR: Strandings.csv

1. Variable List: 
	<Date> - Date the stranding took place

	<Year> - Year the stranding took place (2021 - 2022)

	<Month> - Month the stranding took place (1 - 12)

	<Record> - record number assigned by the IWDG to each individual stranding record

	<Reporter> - name(s) of person(s) who reported the stranding to the IWDG

	<Lat> - Latitude of stranding position

	<Long> - Longitude of stranding position

	<Species> - Species identity (common name) for cetaceans observed during watches (see Legend.csv)

	<Location> - area where stranding was recorded

	<Duration> - for how many minutes the sighting lasted

	<No. animals> - best estimate number of stranded animals 

	<State of decomposition> - rated as per IWDG reporting form

	<Gender> - female (F), male (M) or unknown (U)

	<Length> - animal length measured in metre, from tip of the beak to the notch in the tail

	<Life stranding> - did the animal(s) strand alive or not (Y/N)

	<Comments> - additional comments on observations during the stranding

	<Reported> - date when a LIVE recorded stranding was reported to the IWDG


DATA-SPECIFIC INFORMATION FOR: SimultaneousWatches.csv

1. Variable List: 
	<Survey number> - Individual number for each survey (1 - 120)

	<Date> - Date the survey took place

	<Month> - Month the survey took place (1 - 12)

	<Year> - Year the survey took place (2021 - 2022)

	<Start (HHMM)> - Time the survey started (in hours and minutes)

	<End (HHMM)> - Time the survey ended (in hours and minutes)

	<Site> - Site locations, using abbreviations explained in Legend.csv

	<Area (sqkm)> - Size of area observed during survey in square kilometer

	<Observer Lat> - Latitude of observer location during the survey

	<Observer Long> - Longitude of observer location during the survey

	<OA> - Range of angles of the observation area from the view of the observer

	<SS> - Sea state applicable during most of the watch, based on Beaufort scale

	<Swell> - Swell height based on IWDG reporting form

	<CC> - Cloud cover, based on IWDG reporting form

	<Glare> - Angle size the sun was glaring

	<Visibility> - based on IWDG reporting form

	<WD> - wind direction

	<WS> - wind speed in knots

	<WF> - wind force, in Beaufort scale

	<Precipitation> - yes or no for rain, fog or snow

 	<Sighting Number> - individual number for each sighting

	<Effort/Non-effort> - was the sighting recorded within (E) or outside (N) the search areas

	<Time> - start time of sighting in HHMM

	<Duration> - for how many minutes the sighting lasted

	<Bearing> - direction of sighting from observation point recorded in degree

 	<Reticules> - distance of sighting from observation point recorded in mils

	<Distance> - distance of sighting converted into metre

	<Lat Sighting> - Latitude of sighting position

	<Long Sighting> - Longitude of sighting position

	<Cue> - initial cue that gave away cetacean presence	

	<Species> - Species identity (common name) for cetaceans observed during watches (see Legend.csv)

	<Min> - minimum number of animals observed during one sighting

	<Max> - maximum number of animals observed during one sighting

	<Best estimate> - best estimate number of animals observed during one sighting

	<Calves present> - how many calves were present during encounter

	<Primary behaviour> - behaviour observed most during the encounter (see Legend.csv)

	<Secondary behaviour> - behaviour observed second most druing encounter (see Legend.csv)

	<Other behaviour> - any other behvaiours observed during encounter (see Legend.csv)

	<Birds present> - were birds present during the encounter (Y/N)

	<Boat acticity> - were boat present in the search area during the watch/ encounters (Y/N)

	<Behaviour comments> - additional comments on observed behaviour

	<Comments> - additional comments on observations during the watch

	<Submitted> - date of record submission to the IWDG

	<Observers> - names of people who were doing the watches


DATA-SPECIFIC INFORMATION FOR: Legend.csv

1. Variable List: N/A
2. List of tables:
	<Species names> - including code (abreviation), common name and scientific name

	<Beaufort Scale> - conversion of knots to Beaufort

	<Site names> - abreviations used for site names

	<Behaviour> - abreviations used for behaviour types

	<Visibility> - codes used for visibility stages
	

DATA-SPECIFIC INFORMATION FOR: Hourly_data_for_Buoy_M3.csv

1. Variable List: 
	<date> - Date and Time (UTC)

	<temp> - Air Temperature (C)	

	<rhum> - Relative Humidity (%)

	<windsp> - Mean Wind Speed (kt)

	<dir> - Mean Wind Direction (degrees)

	<gust> - Maximum Gust (kt)

	<msl> - Mean Sea Level Pressure (hPa)

	<seatp> - Sea Temperature (C)

	<per> - Significant Wave Period (seconds)

	<wavht> - Significant Wave Height (m)

	<mxwav> - Individual Maximum We Height(m)

	<wvdir> - Wave Direction (degrees)	

DATA-SPECIFIC INFORMATION FOR: IrishNationalTideGaugeData.csv

1. Variable List: 
	<time> - time and date the variables were recorded (YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SSZ) in UTC

	<station_id> - location of recording sensor

	<longitude> - longitude of the sensor

	<Water_Level_LAT> - water level in metre

	<Water_Level_OD_Malin> - water level to Malin Head Ordnance Datum in metre

	<QC_Flag> - data quality flag