Aerial Survey of Areas in the Central North Sea for Seabird and Marine Mammals Species for the POSEIDON Project

There are four core objectives for this contract. These are to: a) Conduct four, seasonal, high precision digital aerial surveys of the study area in the central North Sea. Survey data are to be collected using digital video or still imagery at a minimum of 1.5 cm Ground Surface Distance (GSD) to confidently capture and identify to the lowest taxonomic level possible all birds (in flight and on the water) and marine mammals within the surveyed area. Seasons are defined as: 1) December 2022 2) January – March 2023 3) April – June 2023, and 4) July – September 2023. Whilst we recognise the challenges of surveying large areas to prescriptive timetables, we would suggest contractors aim for the middle month of survey seasons where practical, and limit as far as possible the total time required to survey the study area within a season. Where surveys have to take place at the beginning or end of seasons, Natural England would appreciate discussions to ensure seasons are separated to an acceptable degree. b) process imagery to identify all birds, marine mammals, and other objects of interest captured to the lowest taxonomic level possible; c) Quality Assure results so that pre-agreed data standards are met (e.g. to meet MEDIN standards, JCDP data standards for archival in marine data repositories such as the Marine Data Exchange); d) produce ArcGIS layers, associated metadata, accompanying .csv files, etc. and four brief reports (one for each of the survey seasons) detailing survey effort and observations for each individual survey within pre-agreed timeframes, likely to be within 6 – 8 weeks of data collection. Files provided should quantify locations, dates and times of surveys in a clearly communicated coordinate system and/or projection, regardless of whether animals were sighted or not.