Tables

Record type. Use FI for Information records.

• required: true
• pattern: FI

Organization owning the legal rights over the resource. Combine multiple values with ~.

• 202 Research Institute for Nature and Forest (INBO)
• 630 NIOZ Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research (NIOZ)
• 740 DHI Water Environment Health
• 1375 Joint Nature Conservation Committee, Aberdeen Office (JNCC)
• 1416 Norwegian Institute for Nature Research (NINA)
• 1527 Rijkswaterstaat Central Information Services
• 2125 University College Cork (UCC)
• 2299 Research and Technology Centre, Buesum (FTZ)
• 2422 Wageningen Marine Research (Den Helder) (WMR)
• 2827 Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (HQ) (RSPB)
• 3393 SOVON Dutch Centre for Field Ornithology (SOVON)
• 3269 Federal Agency for Nature Conservation (BfN)
• 5045 Bureau Waardenburg BV (BUWA)
• 5123 Aarhus University, Department of Bioscience (BIOS)
• 5440 Ornis Consult A/S
• 5441 Institute of Avian Research
• 5442 Dutch Seabird Group (NZG)
• 5443 Portuguese Society for the Study of Birds (SPEA)
• 5444 Cork Ecology

• required: true
• maxLength: 20
• pattern: (\d+|~)+

Country associated with the DataRightsHolder. Combine multiple values with ~ in the same order as DataRightsHolder.

• required: true
• maxLength: 20
• pattern: ([A-Z]{2}|~)+

Record type. Use EC for campaign records.

• required: true
• pattern: EC

Identifier of the campaign. Must be unique across the entire ESAS database (e.g. by prepending the identifier with the DataRightsHolder such as inbo:12345). Must be stable, as it is used in combination with DataRightsHolder to detect resubmissions of data.

• required: true
• unique: true
• maxLength: 50

Access to the data (Public or Restricted). See the ICES Data Policy for conditions.

• required: true

Start date of the campaign, formatted as YYYY-MM-DD.

• required: false

End date of the campaign, formatted as YYYY-MM-DD.

• required: false

Additional details about the campaign, such as research purpose, area covered or route.

• required: false
• maxLength: 300

Record type. Use ES for sample records.

• required: true
• pattern: ES

Identifier of the campaign the sample belongs to.

• required: true
• maxLength: 50

Identifier of the sample. Must be unique within the campaign.

• required: true
• unique: true
• maxLength: 50

Sampling date, formatted as YYYY-MM-DD.

• required: true

Platform from which sampling took place. Use ZZ99 for unknown.

• required: true

Type of the platform.

• 30 Ship
• 62 Aeroplane
• 67 Helicopter

• required: true

Side of the platform from which sampling took place.

• right Starboard
• right_front
• right_back
• left Port
• left_front
• left_back
• both Observers on both sides producing one collective data stream

• required: false

Height (in m) of the platform during sampling (e.g. average flying height of airplane).

• required: false

Width (in m) of the sampling transect.

• required: true

Sampling method.

• 1 Ship-based transect method with distance estimation and snapshot for flying birds
• 2 Ship-based transect method with distance estimation, no snapshot for flying birds
• 3 All observations, but no transect operated
• 4 Presence/absence data only
• 5 Ship-based transect method with distance estimation and snapshot for flying birds, but no scan data for outside the transect
• 6 Ship-based strip transect, no snapshot, no distance estimation
• 7 Ship-based strip transect, with snapshot, no distance estimation
• 8 Visual aerial line transect method with distance sampling
• 9 Visual aerial strip transect, no distance estimation
• 10 Visual aerial total counts
• 11 Digital aerial - video
• 12 Digital aerial - stills

• required: true

Whether the sample should be considered primary (True) or ancillary (False) in the case of observers recording concurrent but independent data streams.

• required: false

Species (groups) that were counted during sampling.

• 1 All species recorded (standard)
• 2 All species except Larus gulls
• 3 All species except fulmars
• 4 All species except Larus gulls, fulmars and kittiwakes
• 5 Auks only
• 6 Auks and seaduck only
• 7 All species except eiders and gulls
• 8 All species except gannets
• 9 Auks and unusual seabirds only
• 10 All species except auks and divers
• 11 All species except small gulls (Little, Black-headed & Common Gull/Black-legged Kittiwake)
• 12 All species except Lesser Black-backed Gulls
• 13 All species except seaduck and divers
• 14 All species except gannets, fulmars and kittiwakes
• 15 All species except fulmars and gannets
• 16 Cetaceans only
• 17 Auks, divers, grebes and seaduck only
• 18 Cetaceans and rare birds only
• 99 Other

• required: true

List of distance bin boundaries applied during sampling and to be used for distance analyses, formatted as x|x|...|x. For a typical ship-based sample using a 300 m wide transect this would be 0|50|100|200|300.

• required: false
• maxLength: 100
• pattern: (\d+\|)+\d+

Extent to which binoculars were used during sampling.

• 1 No binoculars used
• 2 Binoculars used for scanning far ahead of the platform (e.g. for seaduck and diver monitoring)
• 3 Binoculars used extensively for scanning ahead and to the side, naked eye used for close observations (e.g. for cetacean monitoring)

• required: false

Number of observers that contributed to the sample.

• required: false

Additional details about the sample, such as the name of the ship in case it has no SHIPC code.

• required: false
• maxLength: 300

Record type. Use EP for position records.

• required: true
• pattern: EP

Identifier of the sample the position belongs to.

• required: true
• maxLength: 50

Identifier of the position. Must be unique within the campaign.

• required: true
• unique: true
• maxLength: 50

UTC time at the start of the trajectory/observation bin of this position, formatted as hh:mm:ss.

• required: true

Latitude of the position in decimal degrees, using the WGS84 datum. Often the calculated midpoint of a trajectory.

• required: true
• minimum: -90
• maximum: 90

Longitude of the position in decimal degrees, using the WGS84 datum. Often the calculated midpoint of a trajectory.

• required: true
• minimum: -180
• maximum: 180

Distance (in km) travelled during the observation bin. Can only remain empty if Area is used.

• required: false

Area (in km²) of sea surveyed during the observation bin. Can only remain empty if Distance is used.

• required: false

Wind force and sea state according to the Beaufort scale.

• 0 Calm - Sea like mirror
• 1 Light air - Ripples with appearance of scales, no foam crests
• 2 Light breeze - Small wavelets, crests of glassy appearance, not breaking
• 3 Gentle breeze - Large wavelets, crests begin to break, scattered whitecaps
• 4 Moderate breeze - Small waves becoming longer, numerous whitecaps
• 5 Fresh breeze - Moderate waves, many whitecaps, some spray
• 6 Strong breeze - Larger waves, whitecaps everywhere, more spray
• 7 High wind, moderate gale, near gale - Sea heaps up and white foam from breaking waves begins to be blown in streaks along the direction of the wind
• 8 Gale, fresh gale - Moderately high waves; edges of crests begin to break into the spindrift; foam is blown in well-marked streaks along the direction of the wind
• 9 Strong/severe gale - High waves; dense streaks of foam along wind; crests begin to topple, tumble and roll over; spray may affect visibility
• 10 Storm, whole gale - Very high waves with long overhanging crests; foam in great patches blown in dense white streaks along wind; sea surface takes a white appearance; tumbling becomes heavy and shock-like; visibility affected
• 11 Violent storm - Exceptionally high waves (medium sized ships may be lost to view behind waves); sea covered with long white patches of foam lying along the wind; everywhere edges of crests are blown into froth; visibility affected
• 12 Hurricane force - Air is filled with foam and spray; sea completely white with driving spray; visibility seriously affected

• required: false

Visibility (in km). Use a range code (A-D) for historical data.

• A Poor (< 1 km) or express as 0.1, 0.2, 0.3, …
• B Fair/moderate (1 - 5 km) or express as 1, 1.5, …
• C Good/very good (5 - 10 km) or express as 5, 6, …
• D Excellent/infinity (> 10 km) or express as 10

• required: false

Glare that could be affecting observation quality.

• none No glare
• weak Weak glare (no major effect on the counting)
• medium Medium glare (a part of the viewing area is affected by glare)
• strong Strong glare (the whole viewing area is affected)

• required: false

Angle of the sun in relation to the observer (0-359), with 0 being straight ahead.

• required: false
• minimum: 0
• maximum: 360

Cloud cover (in oktas).

• required: false

Precipitation.

• N None
• R Rain
• S Snow
• F Fog

• required: false

Ice cover percentage within the transect.

• required: false
• minimum: 0
• maximum: 100

General impression of the observation conditions.

• G Good
• M Moderate
• P Poor

• required: false

Record type. Use EO for observation records.

• required: true
• pattern: EO

Identifier of the position the observation belongs to.

• required: true
• maxLength: 50

Identifier of the observation. Must be unique within the campaign.

• required: true
• unique: true
• maxLength: 50

Identifier of an aggregation of individuals. Must be unique within the campaign. Observations in a sample with the same GroupID are thus indicated as being observed as part of the same group.

• required: false
• maxLength: 5

Whether the observation was in (True) or out (False) of the transect.

• required: true

Type of SpeciesCode.

• ESAS: European Seabirds at Sea species code
• ERID: World Register of Marine Species Aphia ID

• required: true

Code of the observed species. See the species lookup table.

• required: true

Number of animals counted or estimated (not corrected for distance).

• required: true

Distance (in m) at which the animal(s) was observed. Values should be the midpoint of the distance bins defined in DistanceBins or use > to indicate distances outside the transect (e.g. 25, 75, 150, 250 and >300 would be the only valid values for distanceBins = 0|50|100|200|300). For ship-based sampling of birds and marine mammals in contact with water using a standard 300 m transect, one can use the ObservationDistance vocabulary.

• A In contact with the water, 0 - 50 m
• B In contact with the water, 50 - 100 m
• C In contact with the water, 100 - 200 m
• D In contact with the water, 200 - 300 m
• E In contact with the water, >300 m, beyond transect
• F Flying, no contact with water
• W In contact with the water, but distance not recorded

• required: false
• maxLength: 8
• pattern: [ABCDEFW]|\>?\d+(\.\d+)?

Life stage of the animal(s), based on plumage.

• A Adult
• I Immature (not specified)
  • 1 1st calendar year (juvenile)
  • 2 2nd calendar year
  • 3 3rd calendar year
  • 4 4th calendar year
  • 5 5th calendar year

• required: false

Primary moult of the animal(s). Use only for fulmar, auks, divers and seaduck.

• X Active primary moult
• Y No active primary moult

• required: false

Plumage type of the animal(s).

• B Breeding (summer) plumage
• T Transient plumage (moulting between winter & summer plumage or vice-versa)
• W Non-breeding (winter) plumage
• L Light morph (skuas/double light ‘LL’ fulmars)
• C Coloured morph (‘L’, ‘D’ & ‘DD’ fulmars)
• I Intermediate morph (skuas)
• D Dark morph (skuas)
• P Pullus

For immature auks (guillemot and razorbill):

• A1 ½ or less than adult size
• A2 Over ½ adult size
• A3 About same size as adult

For immature northern gannets:

• G1 Plumage 1
• G2 Plumage 2
• G3 Plumage 3
• G4 Plumage 4
• G5 Plumage 5

• required: false

Sex of the animal(s).

• F Female
• M Male

• required: false

Direction in which the animal(s) is travelling. Use degrees (10° increments) to indicate directions relative to the direction of the platform and (inter)cardinal directions (e.g. NE for heading Northwest) for absolute directions.

• required: false

Observed prey (type) caught or carried by the animal(s).

• 9 Other item
• 10 Fish, no further details
• 11 Small fish, unidentified (ca. bill length)
• 12 Medium fish, unidentified (ca. 2-5x bill length)
• 13 Large fish, unidentified (difficult to handle)
• 14 Feeding sandeel ball at surface
• 15 Feeding clupeoid ball at surface
• 16 Feeding unidentified fish ball at surface
• 17 Feeding capelin ball at surface
• 20 Gurnard
• 21 Herring or sprat
• 22 Sandeel
• 23 Gadoid fish
• 24 Flatfish
• 25 Regurgitated fish after aerial pursuit
• 26 Salmonid
• 27 Capelin
• 28 Eel
• 29 Pipefish
• 30 Small particles, unidentified
• 31 Large object, unidentified
• 32 Jellyfish
• 33 Squid
• 34 Worm (e.g. Nereis)
• 35 Barnacles (Balanidae)
• 36 Oil from oil slick
• 40 Crustacean, unidentified
• 41 Swimming crab
• 42 Starfish
• 43 Sea urchin
• 44 Shore crab
• 45 Bivalve, unidentified
• 46 Mussel
• 47 Whelk eggs capsule
• 50 Carrion or big unidentified corpse
• 51 Seal carcass
• 52 Whale carcass
• 53 Bird carcass
• 54 Litter, rubbish
• 55 Regurgitated unidentified prey after aerial pursuit
• 56 Bird kill (e.g. bonxie)
• 57 Excrements (e.g. from whale)
• 58 Kitchen scraps
• 59 Bread
• 60 Fishery waste, unidentified
• 61 Discarded roundfish
• 62 Discarded flatfish
• 63 Discarded offal
• 64 Discarded benthic invertebrate, unidentified
• 65 Discarded starfish
• 66 Discarded crustacean
• 70 Seaweed as nest material
• 71 Insects

• required: false

Associations between the animal(s) and vessels/structures/floating matter. Combine multiple values with ~. Originally described in Camphuysen & Garthe (2004) Appendix 1.

• 10 Associated with fish shoal
• 11 Associated with cetaceans
• 12 Associated with front
• 13 Associated with line in sea
• 14 Sitting on or near floating wood
• 15 Associated with floating litter
• 16 Associated with oil slick
• 17 Associated with floating seaweed
• 18 Associated with observation base
• 19 Sitting on observation base
• 20 Deliberately approaching observation base
• 21 Associated with other vessel
• 22 Associated with or on buoy
• 23 Associated with offshore platform
• 24 Sitting on offshore platform
• 25 Sitting on marking pole or stick
• 26 Associated with fishing vessel
• 27 Associated with or on sea ice
• 28 Associated with land (e.g. colony)
• 29 Associated with sand banks
• 50 MSFA participant, no further details
• 51 MSFA participant, joined by others
• 52 MSFA participant, joining flock
• 53 MSFA participant, scrounger type
• 54 MSFA participant, solitary diver
• 55 MSFA participant, beater
• 56 MSFA participant, social feeder
• 57 Type II MSFA participant
• 58 Type III MSFA participant
• 59 Drive hunt MSFA participant
• 100 Associated with set net
• 101 Associated with fish trap
• 102 On sandbank
• 103 Next to sandbank
• 110 Inside wind farm
• 111 Inside wind farm, associated with floating litter
• 112 Inside wind farm, associated with observation base
• 113 Inside wind farm, associated with floating wood
• 114 Inside wind farm, associated with floating sea weed
• 115 Inside wind farm, associated with platform
• 116 Sitting on wind turbine (foundation)
• 117 Flying or swimming near wind turbine (foundation)
• 200 Flying between (turbine) foundations

MSFA stands for multi-species feeding association (Camphuysen & Webb, 1999).

• required: false
• maxLength: 30
• pattern: (\d{2,3}|~)+

Observed behaviour of the animal(s). Combine multiple values with ~. Originally described in Camphuysen & Garthe (2004) Appendix 2.

• 30 Holding fish
• 31 Without fish
• 32 Feeding young at sea
• 33 Feeding, method unspecified
• 34 Wading, filtering or probing
• 35 Scooping prey from surface
• 36 Aerial pursuit
• 37 Skimming
• 38 Hydroplaning
• 39 Pattering
• 40 Scavenging
• 41 Scavenging at fishing vessel
• 42 Dipping
• 43 Surface seizing
• 44 Surface pecking
• 45 Deep plunging
• 46 Shallow plunging
• 47 Pursuit plunging
• 48 Pursuit diving, or bottom feeding
• 49 Actively searching
• 60 Resting or apparently asleep
• 61 Courtship display
• 62 Courtship feeding
• 63 Copulating
• 64 Carrying nest material
• 65 Guarding chick
• 66 Preening or bathing
• 67 Colony rafts
• 68 Kleptoparasitising
• 69 Circling high
• 70 Wheeling or swimming slowly
• 71 Escape from ship (rooster tail)
• 72 Swimming fast, not avoiding ship
• 73 Breaching clear out of the water
• 74 At the bow of the ship
• 75 Apparently feeding: herding behaviour
• 76 Apparently feeding: other behaviour
• 77 Calf at the tail of adult
• 78 Calf swimming freely in herd
• 79 Basking, afloat
• 80 Spy-hopping
• 81 Lob-tailing
• 82 Tail/flipper slapping
• 83 Approaching ship
• 84 Only blow visible (whales)
• 85 Only splashes visible (dolphins)
• 86 Acrobatic leaps
• 87 Sexual behaviour
• 88 Play
• 89 Haul-out
• 90 Under attack by kleptoparasite
• 91 Under attack (as prey) by bird
• 92 Under attack (as prey) by mar. mammal
• 93 Escape diving
• 94 Flushed (disturbance)
• 95 Injured
• 96 Entangled in fishing gear or rope
• 97 Oiled
• 98 Sick, unwell
• 99 Dead
• 100 Carousel feeding (orca)
• 101 Pod splitting
• 102 Pod formation
• 103 Source avoiding behaviour
• 111 Not foraging
• 112 Diving (no specification)
• 113 Active migration
• 114 Flying off (no specification)
• 115 On water/swimming
• 116 Distraction behaviour
• 117 Flying (no specification)
• 118 Submerged
• 119 Surfacing
• 120 On artificial piece of something (platform, pole)
• 121 Milling / Non-directional behaviour
• 122 Diving (marine mammals)
• 123 Head out of water (seals)

• required: false
• maxLength: 30
• pattern: (\d{2,3}|~)+

Additional details about to the observation.

• required: false
• maxLength: 300