Reef Life Survey: Global Shallow Reef Fish Abundance Records

Reef Life Survey divers collected records of bony fishes and elasmobranchs along standardized 50-meter transects on shallow rocky and coral reefs worldwide. Abundance information is available for records found within quantitative 50 x 5 meter survey swathes, with out-of-survey records identified as presence-only. This dataset has been superseded by a synthesized global collection from the National Reef Monitoring Network.

Use Cases

• Modeling global fish species distribution based on presence-only and quantitative abundance records
• Analyzing community composition on shallow rocky and coral reefs based on transect survey data
• Benchmarking regional biodiversity against a global survey standard based on the 50m transect methodology

Strengths

• Data collected via a standardized global protocol using 50m transects and 5m swathes
• Includes both quantitative abundance data and presence-only observations
• Covers shallow rocky and coral reefs worldwide

Limitations

• Dataset has been superseded by a newer synthesized collection; users are directed to the NRMN collections
• Does not include repeat surveys of sites, limiting temporal trend analysis
• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download

Provenance

Source

Australian Ocean Data Network

Collection Method

Collected by Reef Life Survey divers along 50m transects on shallow reefs.

Time Range

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Freshness

Last updated 2026-04-11 16:54:48.851909; freshness should be verified as the dataset is superseded.

Geography

Global coverage of shallow rocky and coral reefs.