FGDL Documentation

FLORIDA GEOGRAPHIC DATA LIBRARY DOCUMENTATION

TITLE: SEA TURTLE STRANDINGS IN FLORIDA 1986 - 2017

Geodataset Name:       SEA_TURTLE_STRND_MAY17
Geodataset Type:       SHAPEFILE
Geodataset Feature:    Point
Feature Count:         38424

GENERAL DESCRIPTION:

This dataset contains Florida Sea Turtle Stranding and Salvage Network (STSSN) data for the years 1986-2017. The STSSN is responsible for gathering standardized data on stranded marine turtles throughout the state this effort is coordinated by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission - Fish and Wildlife Research Institute (FWRI). The Florida STSSN functions as a part of an eighteen state network led by NOAA's National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS). In Florida, strandings are documented by FWRI staff biologists and by a network of permitted participants located around the state. Live strandings are rescued and transported to properly permitted rehabilitation facilities. Data from strandings are collected on a standardized reporting form and include date, species, location, carapace length and width, carcass condition, carcass disposition, and information on anomalies (e.g., entanglement, propeller damage, fibropapillomas). Additionally, certain carcasses are regularly collected by FWRI staff for gross or detailed necropsy. Each week, FWRI reports Florida strandings to NMFS as a part of a management plan that is intended to reduce the incidental take of turtles in the shrimp fishery. FWRI also generates monthly and yearly stranding summary reports to monitor mortality and to detect and describe any unusual stranding events. Stranding data collected through the Florida STSSN have been used extensively in the identification of mortality factors and in the development of recovery actions (e.g., Turtle Excluder Device (TED) requirements, gill net regulations).

DATA SOURCE(S):                    Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission-Fish and Wildlife Research Institute
SCALE OF ORIGINAL SOURCE MAPS:     Varies
GEODATASET EXTENT:                 State of Florida

PUBLICATION DATE:                  20170531
TIME PERIOD OF CONTENT:            Begin Date: 19860101    End Date: 20170531
DOWNLOAD LINK:                     http://www.fgdl.org/metadataexplorer/explorer.jsp

FEATURE ATTRIBUTE TABLES:

Datafile Name: SEA_TURTLE_STRND_MAY17.DBF

ITEM NAME	WIDTH	TYPE
OBJECTID	4	OID
Shape	4	Geometry
STSSN_ID	80	String
YEAR_	8	Double
MONTH_	8	Double
DAY_	8	Double
COMMONNAME	80	String
COUNTYNAME	80	String
CONDITION	80	String
CLSL	8	Double
CWSL	8	Double
CLOC	8	Double
CWOC	8	Double
DDLAT	8	Double
DDLONG	8	Double
MGRS	15	String
GOOGLEMAP	100	String
DESCRIPT	50	String
FGDLAQDATE	36	Date
AUTOID	4	Integer

FEATURE ATTRIBUTE TABLES CODES AND VALUES:

Item
Item Description

OBJECTID Internal feature number.

Shape Feature geometry.

STSSN_ID Unique record identifier for each stranding event in the STSSN database.

YEAR_ Year of the stranding event.

MONTH_ Month of the stranding event

DAY_ Day of the stranding event.

COMMONNAME Common name of the stranded species.

COUNTYNAME Name of the county in which the stranding event occurred.

CONDITION Condition of the stranded carcass upon discovery.

CLSL Carapace length, straight line (cm).

CWSL Carapace width, straight line (cm).

CLOC Carapace length, over curve (cm)

CWOC Carapace width, over curve (cm).

DDLAT Latitude of the stranding event in decimal degrees (DD.dddd).

DDLONG Longitude of the stranding event in decimal degrees (DD.dddd).

MGRS Military Grid Reference System (MGRS) Coordinate of the Facility. The MGRS is the geocoordinate standard used by NATO militaries for locating points on the earth. The MGRS provides a means to represent any location on the surface of the Earth using an alphanumeric string. Hierarchical references are based on the Universal Transverse Mercator (UTM) coordinate system. The MGRS is used for the entire earth. http://mgrs-data.org

GOOGLEMAP Webpage hyperlink to location in Google Maps.

DESCRIPT Field added by FGDL based on COMMONNAME and STSSN_ID.

FGDLAQDATE The date FGDL acquired the data from the Source.

AUTOID Unique ID added by GeoPlan

USER NOTES:

This data is provided 'as is'. GeoPlan relied on the integrity of the original data layer's topology

This data is provided 'as is' by GeoPlan and is complete to our knowledge.

GeoPlan relied on the integrity of the attribute information within the original data.

All sea turtles that occur in U.S. waters are listed as either threatened or endangered under the Endangered Species Act. To advance the conservation and recovery of listed sea turtles, each sea turtle recovery plan developed jointly by NOAA Fisheries and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service identifies and highlights the need to maintain an active stranding network. As a result, the Sea Turtle Stranding and Salvage Network was formally established by NOAA Fisheries in 1980 to document strandings of sea turtles along the coastal areas from Maine to Texas and in portions of the U.S. Caribbean. Source: https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/national/marine-life-distress/sea-turtle-stranding-and-salvage-network A stranding is any dead sea turtle that is found floating or washed ashore. Strandings also include live turtles that are found with life-threatening problems (e.g., sick, injured, or entangled). The location of the stranding when first reported is the point location that appears in this database and may or may not be the location at the time of death. The following are not included in this database: strandings of sea turtles that were not identified to species, strandings where a latitude and longitude could not be determined, and strandings of captive-reared turtles. Turtles that are known to be captured incidental to some activity (i.e., commercial fisheries, research projects, power plant operations, etc.) are not included in this database. Stranding data are often used to monitor mortality rates and may sometimes be used as an indicator of the relative distributions and abundances of different species and sizes of sea turtles. However, there are several considerations to keep in mind when using stranding data for these purposes. 1) Not all turtles that die are discovered, reported, and documented by the STSSN. A majority of dead turtles probably do not wash ashore. Of those that do wash ashore, many may become hidden in mangroves or other vegetation, and some that strand on open, sandy beaches may still go unreported. Therefore, sea turtle stranding data represent only a subset of all dead turtles. 2) Decreases or increases in stranding numbers may not be due to decreases or increases in mortality rates. For example, mortality rates may remain unchanged but decreases or increases in local turtle populations may result in changes in the number of strandings. 3) Carcasses and debilitated turtles may drift hundreds of kilometers before being documented as a stranding. Turtles may strand on beaches adjacent to well-used in-water habitats, but they may also strand along areas where they do not normally occur. Source: FWC

The data was created to serve as base information for use in GIS systems for a variety of planning and analytical purposes.

This data is provided 'as is' and its horizontal positional accuracy has not been verified by GeoPlan

This data is provided 'as is' and its vertical positional accuracy has not been verified by GeoPlan

Access_Constraints: All data must be verified by Principle Investigator or Group Database Analyst prior to release Use_Constraints: All data must be credited to Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission - Fish and Wildlife Research Institute.

The Florida Geographic Data Library is a collection of Geospatial Data compiled by the University of Florida GeoPlan Center with support from the Florida Department of Transportation. GIS data available in FGDL is collected from various state, federal, and other agencies (data sources) who are data stewards, producers, or publishers. The data available in FGDL may not be the most current version of the data offered by the data source. University of Florida GeoPlan Center makes no guarantees about the currentness of the data and suggests that data users check with the data source to see if more recent versions of the data exist. Furthermore, the GIS data available in the FGDL are provided 'as is'. The University of Florida GeoPlan Center makes no warranties, guaranties or representations as to the truth, accuracy or completeness of the data provided by the data sources. The University of Florida GeoPlan Center makes no representations or warranties about the quality or suitability of the materials, either expressly or implied, including but not limited to any implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, or non-infringement. The University of Florida GeoPlan Center shall not be liable for any damages suffered as a result of using, modifying, contributing or distributing the materials. A note about data scale: Scale is an important factor in data usage. Certain scale datasets are not suitable for some project, analysis, or modeling purposes. Please be sure you are using the best available data. 1:24000 scale datasets are recommended for projects that are at the county level. 1:24000 data should NOT be used for high accuracy base mapping such as property parcel boundaries. 1:100000 scale datasets are recommended for projects that are at the multi-county or regional level. 1:125000 scale datasets are recommended for projects that are at the regional or state level or larger. Vector datasets with no defined scale or accuracy should be considered suspect. Make sure you are familiar with your data before using it for projects or analysis. Every effort has been made to supply the user with data documentation. For additional information, see the References section and the Data Source Contact section of this documentation. For more information regarding scale and accuracy, see our webpage at: http://geoplan.ufl.edu/education.html

REFERENCES:

FWC GIS & Mapping Data Downloads http://geodata.myfwc.com/ Sea Turtle Strandings Florida http://geodata.myfwc.com/datasets/sea-turtle-strandings-florida NOAA - Sea Turtle Stranding and Salvage Network https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/national/marine-life-distress/sea-turtle-stranding-and-salvage-network NOAA - State Coordinators for the Sea Turtle Stranding and Salvage Network https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/state-coordinators-sea-turtle-stranding-and-salvage-network NOAA - Sea Turtle Stranding and Salvage Network Reports https://grunt.sefsc.noaa.gov/stssnrep/ Florida Sea Turtle Stranding and Salvage Network (FLSTSSN) https://myfwc.com/research/wildlife/sea-turtles/mortality/stranding-salvage-network/

DATA LINEAGE SUMMARY:

Dataset created by STSSN 1986-2014 Point and Vector Object Count: 34076 Process Date: 20170214
The GeoPlan Center downloaded the Sea Turtle Strandings Florida dataset on November 18th, 2019 from the FWC Data Portal: FWC GIS & Mapping Data Downloads http://geodata.myfwc.com/ Sea Turtle Strandings Florida http://geodata.myfwc.com/datasets/sea-turtle-strandings-florida Sea_Turtle_Strandings_Florida.zip Sea_Turtle_Strandings_Florida.shp Contained 1986-2014 Stranding Data with 34,805 Records. The data was in the WGS84 projection. GeoPlan reprojected the dataset to Albers Conical Equal Area [Florida Geographic Data Library] Using the following Transformation: WGS_1984_(ITRF00)_To_NAD_1983 + NAD_1983_To_HARN_Florida GeoPlan emailed Robert Hardy <Robert.Hardy@MyFWC.com> to see if more years worth of data was available. Robert sent via email 2015-2017 data in the same tabular format as was available via the FWC Data Portal. Zipped data was received on 11/27/2019. flstssn2015-2017_20191127.zip flstssn2015-2017.shp The data was in the NAD83 projection. The dataset's projection was reprojected to FGDL Albers. Next the two datasets were combined (1986-2014 + 2015-2017) to create one dataset. During the QA/QC process the following tasks were undertaken: - Deleted the OBJECTID field. - Uppercased all records in the table. - Added MGRS information. - A DESCRIPT field was added based on COMMONNAME and STSSN_ID. - A FGDLAQDATE field was added based on date downloaded from source. - Renamed file to SEA_TURTLE_STRND_MAY17. Process Date: 20191202
Dataset copied. Process Date: 20191218

MAP PROJECTION PARAMETERS:

Projection                          ALBERS
Datum                               HPGN
Units                               METERS
Spheroid                            GRS1980
1st Standard Parallel               24  0  0.000
2nd Standard Parallel               31 30  0.000
Central Meridian                   -84 00  0.000
Latitude of Projection's Origin     24  0  0.000
False Easting (meters)              400000.00000
False Northing (meters)             0.00000

DATA SOURCE CONTACT (S):

Name:
Abbr. Name:
Address:


Phone:

Web site:
E-mail:
Contact Person:
         Phone:
        E-mail:

Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission-Fish and Wildlife Research Institute, Marine Turtle Program
FFWCC-FWRI
100 Eighth Avenue Southeast
St. Petersburg, Florida
33701
(727)896-8626


http://geodata.myfwc.com/datasets/sea-turtle-strandings-florida
Robert.Hardy@MyFWC.com
Robert Hardy

FGDL CONTACT:

Name:                   FLORIDA GEOGRAPHIC DATA LIBRARY
Abbr. Name:             FGDL
Address:                Florida Geographic Data Library
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                        PO Box 115706
                        Gainesville, FL  32611-5706
Web site:               http://www.fgdl.org

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