European Ocean Biodiversity Information System

The objective of the aerial monitoring of the maritime French metropolitan area and its adjacent areas was to produce an inventory of the spatial distribution and abundance of megafauna species, mainly marine mammals, seabirds, sea turtles and elasmobranchs. This dataset is composed of two datasets: SAMM1 for winter 2011 and SAMM2 for summer 2012. These data were collected in the framework of the Knowledge Acquisition Program on Birds and Marine Mammals (Programme d’Acquisition de Connaissances sur les Oiseaux et les Mammifères Marins - PACOMM), which is coordinated by the Agency for Marine Protected Areas (Agence des Aires Marines Protégées). The main objective of this program was to improve the knowledge needed for the evaluation and implementation of the Natura 2000 network beyond the territorial seas. The data were collected by teams of scientists and observers, coordinated by the PELAGIS Observatory and trained specifically in the aerial observation protocol that was developed in the framework of this program. The SAMM campaigns have collected more than 28.000 observation records of species in French metropolitan waters along more than 100.000 km of transect. This datasets consists only of occurrence records (species, location, date and name of the program) of birds, marine mammals, sharks, rays, sea turtles, and bony fish.