GOAMAPPS Air Effort: Aerial Seabird Survey Transects in the Gulf of America (2018-2023)

Northern Gulf of America seabird survey effort data from aerial transects flown between 2018 and 2023. The dataset was generated by the Bureau of Energy Management's Gulf of America Marine Assessment Project for Protected Species (GoAMAPPS) and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Surveys covered from the USA-Mexico border near Brownsville, Texas, to Key West, Florida, extending 50 to 100 miles offshore.

Use Cases

• Infer zero-value transects for species presence/absence modeling based on surveyed and non-surveyed hexagon units.
• Analyze spatial coverage and survey design efficiency based on the generalized random tessellation stratified (GRTS) sampling technique.
• Assess changes in survey scope over time based on the extension from 50-mile to 100-mile offshore transects in 2022-2023.
• Study seasonal distribution patterns based on surveys conducted in both January/February and July across multiple years.

Strengths

• Surveys conducted over multiple years (2018, 2019, 2020, 2022, 2023) providing temporal coverage.
• Spatial coverage extends from Texas to Florida, including the Dry Tortugas, and up to 100 miles offshore.
• Uses a structured sampling design with 180 randomly selected hexagons (2018-2020) plus 20 additional hexagons (2022-2023).

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment for large-scale modeling.

Provenance

Source

Bureau of Energy Management (GoAMAPPS) and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Collection Method

Aerial surveys from a USFWS Quest Kodiak amphibious aircraft at 200 feet AGL, using a GRTS sampling technique on a 40 sq km hexagon grid.

Time Range

2018-2020, 2022-2023 (surveys in Jan/Feb and July of those years).

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-04 08:04:54.967643; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Northern Gulf of America, from the USA-Mexico border near Brownsville, TX, to Key West, FL, including the Dry Tortugas, extending 50-100 miles offshore.