Sea Watch Foundation Marine Megafauna Sightings: 1971 to present
Citation
Sea Watch Foundation non effort-related sightings database. Accessed on –INSERT DATE-. https://marineinfo.org/doc/dataset/8818
Contact:
The Archive for Marine Species and Habitats Data (MBA-DASSH), more ;
Availability:
 This dataset is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.Description
The Sea Watch Foundation has been collecting both effort-based and non-effort-based sightings data of marine mammals and other megafauna since the late 1960s. The main area of coverage is the waters around Britain and Ireland but with some surveys elsewhere. Data come from platforms ranging from small to large vessels either on dedicated survey or platforms of opportunity, and from coastal land sites. Data collected include environmental conditions, marine traffic, and seabird associations. Sighting records come from all types of marine user from marine mammal biologists to citizen scientists and members of the public. All sightings are checked, and species ID validated from still or video images and/or descriptions, except in those cases where persons are known, experienced, observers. Lineage
Prior to publication data undergo quality control checked which are described in https://github.com/EMODnet/EMODnetBiocheck?tab=readme-ov-file#understanding-the-output Scope Themes: Biology > Mammals Keywords: Marine/Coastal · A, North Atlantic · aeroplane [EurOBIS harvested data] · Bio-geographical regions · Biota · Dolphins · Environment · EurOBIS calculated BBOX · European · fishing vessel [EurOBIS harvested data] · Geoscientific Information · Habitats and biotopes · human [EurOBIS harvested data] · man-powered small boat [EurOBIS harvested data] · Marine mammals · Metadata non conformant · Metadata not evaluated · No limitations to public access · Oceans · offshore structure [EurOBIS harvested data] · Porpoises · Sea regions · Sea turtles · Seals · self-propelled boat [EurOBIS harvested data] · self-propelled small boat [EurOBIS harvested data] · Sharks · vessel of opportunity on fixed route [EurOBIS harvested data] · Visual observation · WGS84 (EPSG:4326) · Whales · XYZ ASCII · North Atlantic Ocean · Alopias vulpinus (Bonnaterre, 1788) · Balaena mysticetus Linnaeus, 1758 · Balaenoptera Lacépède, 1804 · Balaenoptera acutorostrata Lacépède, 1804 · Balaenoptera borealis Lesson, 1828 · Balaenoptera physalus (Linnaeus, 1758) · Caretta caretta (Linnaeus, 1758) · Cetacea · Cetorhinus maximus (Gunnerus, 1765) · Delphinapterus leucas (Pallas, 1776) · Delphinidae Gray, 1821 · Delphinus delphis Linnaeus, 1758 · Dermochelys coriacea (Vandelli, 1761) · Eubalaena glacialis (Müller, 1776) · Globicephala macrorhynchus Gray, 1846 · Globicephala melas (Traill, 1809) · Grampus griseus (G. Cuvier, 1812) · Halichoerus grypus (Fabricius, 1791) · Hyperoodon (Hyperoodon) ampullatus (Forster, 1770) · Kogia breviceps (de Blainville, 1838) · Kogia sima (Owen, 1866) · Lagenorhynchus Gray, 1846 · Lagenorhynchus acutus (Gray, 1828) · Lagenorhynchus albirostris Gray, 1846 · Lamna Cuvier, 1816 · Megaptera novaeangliae (Borowski, 1781) · Mesoplodon Gervais, 1850 · Mesoplodon bidens (Sowerby, 1804) · Mola mola (Linnaeus, 1758) · Orcinus orca (Linnaeus, 1758) · Pagophilus groenlandicus (Erxleben, 1777) · Peponocephala electra (Gray, 1846) · Phoca vitulina Linnaeus, 1758 · Phocoena phocoena (Linnaeus, 1758) · Physeter macrocephalus Linnaeus, 1758 · Pinnipedia · Prionace glauca (Linnaeus, 1758) · Pseudorca crassidens (Owen, 1846) · Selachii · Sphyrnidae Bonaparte, 1840 · Stenella coeruleoalba (Meyen, 1833) · Tursiops truncatus (Montagu, 1821) · Ziphius cavirostris Cuvier, 1823 Geographical coverage EurOBIS calculated BBOX Stations
Bounding Box Coordinates: MinLong: -11,1583; MinLat: 49,0183 - MaxLong: 2,5; MaxLat: 61 [WGS84] North Atlantic Ocean Stations
[Marine Regions] station Bounding Box Coordinates: MinLong: -11,16; MinLat: 49,01 - MaxLong: 2,5; MaxLat: 61 [WGS84] Temporal coverage
20 February 1971 - 30 December 2024 Taxonomic coverage
Alopias vulpinus (Bonnaterre, 1788) [WoRMS]
Balaena mysticetus Linnaeus, 1758 [WoRMS]
Balaenoptera Lacépède, 1804 [WoRMS]
Balaenoptera acutorostrata Lacépède, 1804 [WoRMS]
Balaenoptera borealis Lesson, 1828 [WoRMS]
Balaenoptera physalus (Linnaeus, 1758) [WoRMS]
Caretta caretta (Linnaeus, 1758) [WoRMS]
Cetacea [WoRMS]
Cetorhinus maximus (Gunnerus, 1765) [WoRMS]
Delphinapterus leucas (Pallas, 1776) [WoRMS]
Delphinidae Gray, 1821 [WoRMS]
Delphinus delphis Linnaeus, 1758 [WoRMS]
Dermochelys coriacea (Vandelli, 1761) [WoRMS]
Eubalaena glacialis (Müller, 1776) [WoRMS]
Globicephala macrorhynchus Gray, 1846 [WoRMS]
Globicephala melas (Traill, 1809) [WoRMS]
Grampus griseus (G. Cuvier, 1812) [WoRMS]
Halichoerus grypus (Fabricius, 1791) [WoRMS]
Hyperoodon (Hyperoodon) ampullatus (Forster, 1770) [WoRMS]
Kogia breviceps (de Blainville, 1838) [WoRMS]
Kogia sima (Owen, 1866) [WoRMS]
Lagenorhynchus Gray, 1846 [WoRMS]
Lagenorhynchus acutus (Gray, 1828) [WoRMS]
Lagenorhynchus albirostris Gray, 1846 [WoRMS]
Lamna Cuvier, 1816 [WoRMS]
Megaptera novaeangliae (Borowski, 1781) [WoRMS]
Mesoplodon Gervais, 1850 [WoRMS]
Mesoplodon bidens (Sowerby, 1804) [WoRMS]
Mola mola (Linnaeus, 1758) [WoRMS]
Orcinus orca (Linnaeus, 1758) [WoRMS]
Pagophilus groenlandicus (Erxleben, 1777) [WoRMS]
Peponocephala electra (Gray, 1846) [WoRMS]
Phoca vitulina Linnaeus, 1758 [WoRMS]
Phocoena phocoena (Linnaeus, 1758) [WoRMS]
Physeter macrocephalus Linnaeus, 1758 [WoRMS]
Pinnipedia [WoRMS]
Prionace glauca (Linnaeus, 1758) [WoRMS]
Pseudorca crassidens (Owen, 1846) [WoRMS]
Selachii [WoRMS]
Sphyrnidae Bonaparte, 1840 [WoRMS]
Stenella coeruleoalba (Meyen, 1833) [WoRMS]
Tursiops truncatus (Montagu, 1821) [WoRMS]
Ziphius cavirostris Cuvier, 1823 [WoRMS]
Parameters
Contributors
Related datasets
Published in: EurOBIS: European Ocean Biodiversity Information System, more Project
DTO - BioFlow: Integration of biodiversity monitoring data into the Digital Twin Ocean, more
Funding Horizon Europe
Grant agreement ID 101112823
URLs
Dataset information: Other: Data type: Data
Data origin: Citizen science
Release date: 2025-03-05
Metadatarecord created: 2025-04-15
Information last updated: 2026-02-02
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