European Seabirds At Sea (ESAS)
Citable as data publication
Vanermen N, Stienen EWM, Fijn R, Markones N, Holdsworth N, Osypchuk A, Pinto C, Desmet P (2022): European Seabirds at Sea (ESAS). ICES, Copenhagen, Denmark. https://esas.ices.dk. https://doi.org/10.14284/601
Contact:
Desmet, Peter Availability:
 This dataset is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.Description
European Seabirds At Sea (ESAS) assembles offshore monitoring data on seabirds and marine mammals. This international database mostly includes data from the North Sea, yet large parts of the northeastern Atlantic Ocean are covered as well. It finds its origin in the 'Seabirds at Sea' project, which was initiated in 1979 following the discovery of major oil potential in the North Sea and an urgent need to gain more knowledge on the occurrence and distribution of seabirds in their offshore habitat. This led to the execution of large-scale ship-based surveys across the North Sea using a standardized data collection method and a first European-wide data assembly in 1991.
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ESAS data are collected by various partners during aerial or ship-based surveys at sea and according to a methodology that allows to calculate georeferenced seabird densities. Standard practice further implies collecting as much information as possible on animal age, plumage and behaviour as well as observation conditions and distance to the observed individuals. As part of the WOZEP research project, ESAS data were migrated in 2022 from its former host JNCC (UK) to ICES. The ICES infrastructure allows partners to submit new data and users to download or request data. 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 > Birds, Biology > Mammals Keywords: Marine/Coastal · A, North Atlantic · Aade [EurOBIS harvested data] · Abundance · Albatros [EurOBIS harvested data] · Alkor [EurOBIS harvested data] · ANE, Baltic · ANE, Biscay Bay · ANE, English Channel · ANE, North Sea · Anglesey [EurOBIS harvested data] · Animal behavior · Antares [EurOBIS harvested data] · Arca [EurOBIS harvested data] · Argos [EurOBIS harvested data] · Arkona [EurOBIS harvested data] · Atair [EurOBIS harvested data] · Atlantis [EurOBIS harvested data] · Beagle [EurOBIS harvested data] · Belgica [EurOBIS harvested data] · Belgica [EurOBIS harvested data] · Beskytteren [EurOBIS harvested data] · Bio-geographical regions · Biota · Birds (marine) · Bretagne [EurOBIS harvested data] · Buffalo [EurOBIS harvested data] · Bulldog [EurOBIS harvested data] · Capricornio [EurOBIS harvested data] · Challenger [EurOBIS harvested data] · Charles Darwin [EurOBIS harvested data] · Cirolana [EurOBIS harvested data] · Clione [EurOBIS harvested data] · Clupea [EurOBIS harvested data] · Corystes [EurOBIS harvested data] · D. Carlos I [EurOBIS harvested data] · Dana [EurOBIS harvested data] · Distribution · Duc De Normandie [EurOBIS harvested data] · Dumbarton Castle [EurOBIS harvested data] · Ecology · Eithne [EurOBIS harvested data] · Elbsande [EurOBIS harvested data] · Eldjarn [EurOBIS harvested data] · England [EurOBIS harvested data] · Environment · Environmental assessment · EurOBIS calculated BBOX · European Leader [EurOBIS harvested data] · Explorer [EurOBIS harvested data] · Frederick Russell [EurOBIS harvested data] · Funny Girl [EurOBIS harvested data] · Gauss [EurOBIS harvested data] · Geoscientific Information · Gorm [EurOBIS harvested data] · Guernsey [EurOBIS harvested data] · Gunnar Thorson [EurOBIS harvested data] · Habitats and biotopes · Hebridean Isles [EurOBIS harvested data] · Heincke [EurOBIS harvested data] · Hydra [EurOBIS harvested data] · Isis [EurOBIS harvested data] · Isle Of Mull [EurOBIS harvested data] · Jersey [EurOBIS harvested data] · Joao Roby [EurOBIS harvested data] · Leeds Castle [EurOBIS harvested data] · L'Espoir [EurOBIS harvested data] · Lindisfarne [EurOBIS harvested data] · Littorina [EurOBIS harvested data] · Lord of the Isles [EurOBIS harvested data] · Lough Beltra [EurOBIS harvested data] · Lough Foyle [EurOBIS harvested data] · Magnus Heinason [EurOBIS harvested data] · Marine birds · Marine ecology · Mellum [EurOBIS harvested data] · Metadata non conformant · Metadata not evaluated · Michael Sars [EurOBIS harvested data] · Mitra [EurOBIS harvested data] · Monitoring · Navicula [EurOBIS harvested data] · Neuwerk [EurOBIS harvested data] · No limitations to public access · non-buoyant aircraft · Norrona [EurOBIS harvested data] · Noruega [EurOBIS harvested data] · Ocean Bounty [EurOBIS harvested data] · Oceania [EurOBIS harvested data] · Oceans · Offshore · Orkney [EurOBIS harvested data] · Pelagia [EurOBIS harvested data] · Pelagic environment · Prince Madog [EurOBIS harvested data] · Professor Albrecht Penck [EurOBIS harvested data] · Ramon Margalef [EurOBIS harvested data] · Reykjanes [EurOBIS harvested data] · Sea regions · Seeadler [EurOBIS harvested data] · Senckenberg [EurOBIS harvested data] · Shackleton [EurOBIS harvested data] · Shetland [EurOBIS harvested data] · ship · Simon Stevin [EurOBIS harvested data] · Song of the Whale [EurOBIS harvested data] · Species diversity · Springfield [EurOBIS harvested data] · Ter Streep [EurOBIS harvested data] · Terschelling [EurOBIS harvested data] · Thalassa [EurOBIS harvested data] · Tyro [EurOBIS harvested data] · Unknown [EurOBIS harvested data] · Victor Hensen [EurOBIS harvested data] · VOS Baltic [EurOBIS harvested data] · Walther Herwig II [EurOBIS harvested data] · Walther Herwig III [EurOBIS harvested data] · Wega [EurOBIS harvested data] · WGS84 (EPSG:4326) · XYZ ASCII · Zeehond [EurOBIS harvested data] · Zeeleeuw [EurOBIS harvested data] · Zirfaea [EurOBIS harvested data] · Baltic Sea · Bay of Biscay · English Channel · North Atlantic Ocean · North Sea · Aves · Cetacea · Pinnipedia Geographical coverage Baltic Sea [Marine Regions] Bay of Biscay [Marine Regions] English Channel [Marine Regions] EurOBIS calculated BBOX Stations
Bounding Box Coordinates: MinLong: -54,2481; MinLat: 14,8788 - MaxLong: 20,2764; MaxLat: 79,1508 [WGS84] North Atlantic Ocean [Marine Regions] North Sea [Marine Regions] Temporal coverage
1979 - 2022 29 June 1979 - 15 December 2023 (EurOBIS harvested data) Parameters
Animal sightings Area of survey {surveyed area} [BODC] (EurOBIS harvested data) Count (in assayed sample) of biological entity specified elsewhere [BODC] Development stage of biological entity specified elsewhere [BODC] Distance (along transect) [BODC] Gender of biological entity specified elsewhere [BODC] Horizontal visibility (ESAS code) in the atmosphere by visual estimation and conversion to ESAS code using the visibility table [BODC] Horizontal visibility in the atmosphere by visual estimation [BODC] Sampling protocol [BODC] Speed of wind {wind speed} in the atmosphere by visual estimation and conversion to Beaufort scale [BODC] Contributors
Vlaamse overheid; Beleidsdomein Omgeving; Instituut voor Natuur- en Bosonderzoek (INBO), more, data creator
Bureau Waardenburg bv - Consultancy for Ecology & Environment, more, data creator
Christian-Albrechts-University Kiel; Research and Technology Centre (FTZ), more, data creator
International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES), more, data creator
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URLs
Dataset information: Other: Dataset status: In Progress
Data type: Data
Data origin: Monitoring: field survey
Release date: 2023-04-27
Metadatarecord created: 2012-07-17
Information last updated: 2026-01-26
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