Survey summary report : Line-transect aerial survey, October–November 2025: Southeast Fisheries Science Center

Details

• Personal Author:
  Aichinger Dias, Laura ; Wicker, Jesse ; Rappucci, Gina ; Litz, Jenny ; Garrison, Lance
• Corporate Authors:
  Southeast Fisheries Science Center (U.S.). Marine Mammal and Turtle Division. ; Cooperative Institute for Marine and Atmospheric Studies (Key Biscayne, Fla.)
• NOAA Program & Office:
  NMFS (National Marine Fisheries Service) ; SEFSC (Southeast Fisheries Science Center) ; CIMAS (Cooperative Institute for Marine and Atmospheric Studies)
• Description:
  The Southeast Fisheries Science Center conducted an aerial survey over the U.S. continental shelf waters of the Gulf of America (formerly the Gulf of Mexico; hereafter, the Gulf). The survey was conducted between October 6 and November 26, 2025, aboard a NOAA Twin Otter aircraft at an altitude of 600 feet and a speed of 100 knots over ground. Survey tracklines were oriented perpendicular to the shoreline and latitudinally spaced 20 km apart. The primary goal of this survey was to characterize the distribution and abundance of marine mammals and sea turtles in the Gulf and update the species distribution models. The survey was designed using distance sampling methods with an independent two-team approach to correct for perception bias in the resulting estimates. A total of 8,890.7 km of tracklines were surveyed on-effort and included 238 marine mammal sightings of four identified species. Eighty-six percent of all cetacean sightings were of common bottlenose dolphins. There were 131 sea turtle sightings, with loggerhead and Kemp’s Ridley totaling 31% and 21% of all identified sightings, respectively.
• Keywords:
  Aerial Surveys In Wildlife Management Counting Marine Mammals Sea Turtles Aerial Surveys In Wildlife Management Marine Mammals Sea Turtles
• Series:
  Southeast Fisheries Science Center Reference Document MMTD   2026-03
• DOI:
  https://doi.org/10.25923/wvdw-4a91
• Format:
  pdf
• Document Type:
  Reference Document
• Place as Subject:
  Gulf Coast (U.S.)
• License:
  https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/
• Rights Information:
  CC0 Public Domain
• Compliance:
  Submitted
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:e9fe50a74e8c77f2f145919d39af7b9b6e8a97066e025480e5c2d3e33b33633a78eb70ffdf57ecd2d6f87374ff15e625df80a8f383d03f0380f5cd4a4546a697
• Download URL:
  https://repository.library.noaa.gov/view/noaa/72406/noaa_72406_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 1.50 MB ]