Name: Indian River County 2018-2019 Manatee Distribution Survey Observations
Display Field: DATE_
Type: Feature Layer
Geometry Type: esriGeometryPoint
Description: Aerial distribution surveys are used by marine mammal biologists from FWC and other agencies to determine the seasonal distribution of manatees. Most surveys are conducted from small, four-seat, high-winged airplanes (Cessna 172 or 182) flying at a height of 500-1000 ft at a speed of 70-90 kts. Small helicopters may be used instead of fixed wing aircraft in urban areas or where waters are particularly opaque and hovering may be required. Flights are usually four to six hours long and are most commonly flown every two weeks for two years. The surveys are designed to maximize the manatee counts by concentrating on shallow nearshore waters around the state where manatees and their primary food source, sea grasses, are located. Flight paths curve parallel to the shoreline, and the airplane circles when manatees are spotted until a count of the number of animals in each group is obtained. Offshore waters are usually not surveyed. Dolphin and sea turtle sightings are recorded opportunistically. All aerial data are recorded on paper maps and entered into a GIS shapefile for spatial analysis. GIS is a computer software system for representing data spatially and for conducting spatial analyses. This dataset includes manatee sightings from 24 surveys flown on the following dates: 5 Oct 2018, 29 Oct 2018, 7 Nov 2018, 26 Nov 2018, 11 Dec 2018, 18 Dec 2018, 10 Jan 2019, 16 Jan 2019, 22 Feb 2019, 28 Feb 2019, 7 Mar 2019, 26 Mar 2019, 11 Apr 2019, 24 Apr 2019, 15 May 2019, 23 May 2019, 12 Jun 2019, 26 Jun 2019, 16 Jul 2019, 23 Jul 2019, 6 Aug 2019, 21 Aug 2019, 25 Sep 2019, and 30 Sep 2019. FWC staff members were observers for these flights, and dual observers (two observers, one in the front seat and one in the rear seat) were present on some or all of survey flights. The survey area included Indian River County from the Sebastian Inlet to approximately the Indian River County/St. Lucie County border.
Service Item Id: 80713b9945f3441383c4beefc56841b1
Copyright Text: Flights were flown and data were collected by FWC staff. Data were entered and verified by FWC staff. Use of these data must be credited in any reports or other written publications by the following sentence: "Manatee specific data used in analyses were collected under scientific research permit #MA773494-11 issued to FWC-FWRI."