Original provider: PRBO Conservation Science Dataset credits: The projects were conducted under the grants awarded to the following organizations and their scientists. The principle investigators of the CalCOFI part of this dataset are (in the chronological order from 1987 to 2006): Richard Veit and John McGowan, Scripps Institution of Oceanography (1987-1994) David Hyrenbach, Scripps Institution of Oceanography (1994-2000) Bill Sydeman, PRBO Conservation Science (2000-2006) The principle investigators of the Rockfish part of this dataset is Bill Sydeman, PRBO Conservation Science (1996-2006) # the affiliations are the ones they belonged to at the time of the surveys. The data were contributed by PRBO Conservation Science. These two projects are on going. See [Supplemental information] for the information on the PIs and organizations in recent years. Abstract: This dataset contains observation data of marine birds and mammals from California Cooperative Oceanic Fisheries Investigations (CalCOFI) from 1987-2006 and Rockfish cruises along the California coast from 1996-2006 by National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS). Data were collected aboard research vessels using standardized marine bird and mammal survey techniques (Tasker et al. 1984, Buckland et al. 1993). Marine birds and mammals were observed in a 90-degree arc from the bow to one side of the ship out to 300m. Counts are summarized by species and behavior along the transects in 3 km bins. Data span years 1987 - 2006.