Marine Wildlife Behavior Database
Metadata

Section 10: Surface Behavior
This section includes fields that describe the behavior of the animal(s) while at the surface. Note that "surface" is defined by log survivorship analysis. There is a field for depth of surface dives, duration of surface dives, and surface time between surface dives. Then there are fields describing in detail the surface time between true dives. This is the total surface time, including the duration of the surface dives and the duration of the surface time between surface dives (sometimes called "surface bout").

Fields:

• Depth of Surface Dives
  SB_DepthSurfaceDive(m): The mean or average depth of surface dives (meters).
  
  
• Duration of Surface Dives
  SB_DurationSurfaceDive(sec): The mean or average duration of surface dives (seconds).
  
  
• Surface Time between Surface Dives
  SB_SurfaceTimeBtwSurfaceDives(sec): The mean or average duration of the time the animal(s) spend at the surface in between surface dives (seconds).
  
  
• Number of Blows
  SB_NumberBlows: The range of number of blows observed during a surface bout.
  
  
• Surface Time between True Dives Minimum
  SB_SurfaceTimeBtwTrueDivesDivesMin(sec): The minimum total surface time, including the duration of the surface dives and the duration of the surface time between surface dives(seconds).
  
  
• Surface Time between True Dives Maximum
  SB_SurfaceTimeBtwTrueDivesDivesMax(sec): The maximum total surface time, including the duration of the surface dives and the duration of the surface time between surface dives(seconds).
  
  
• Surface Time between True Dives Mean
  SB_SurfaceTimeBtwTrueDivesDivesMean(sec): The mean or average total surface time, including the duration of the surface dives and the duration of the surface time between surface dives (seconds).
  
  
• Surface Time between True Dives Median
  SB_SurfaceTimeBtwTrueDivesDivesMedian(sec): The middle value in the distribution of the total surface time (seconds). If there is an even number of surface time values, it is the average of the two middle values.
  
  
• Surface Time between True Dives Mode
  SB_SurfaceTimeBtwTrueDivesDivesMode(sec): The most common total surface time value; in the frequency distribution, the surface time with the greatest number of frequencies (seconds).
  
  
• Surface Time between True Dives Standard Deviation
  SB_SurfaceTimeBtwTrueDivesDivesStdDev: To express the degree of dispersion in the surface time data, the standard deviation (square root of the variance) should be entered (seconds).
  
  
• Comments
  SB_Comments: Free-form field to note complications with data entry, information to review at a later date, etc.