Fisheries and Oceans Canada provides standardized aerial survey counts of Steller sea lions at rookeries and haul-out sites in British Columbia. The data covers the breeding season from 1971 to 2021, with additional non-breeding season surveys. The population, protected since 1970, has more than doubled in size over this period.
Use Cases
- Modeling population recovery trends based on counts spanning 50 years.
- Analyzing seasonal distribution shifts based on breeding and non-breeding season surveys.
- Assessing the impact of conservation policies using pre- and post-1970 protection data.
Strengths
- Time series spans 50 years from 1971 to 2021.
- Data includes both standardized breeding season surveys and ad-hoc non-breeding season counts.
- Counts are consolidated from multiple previous survey datasets.
Limitations
- Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
- Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
Provenance
- Source
- Fisheries and Oceans Canada
- Collection Method
- Standardized province-wide aerial surveys during the breeding season, with additional ad-hoc surveys in other seasons.
- Time Range
- 1971 to 2021
- Freshness
- Last updated 2026-05-05 12:00:53.065931; freshness should be verified.
- Geography
- British Columbia, Canada