no. 3609 DATA PROCESSING SEABIRDS — KING, WATSON, GOULD 



The 80-column punch card system works on a numerical code into 

 which all verbal data recorded by the observer at sea must be trans- 

 lated before entry. The Cromwell observations, oceanography, 

 weather, and ship's position were checked for accuracy by a single 

 editor and entered as numbers on intermediate coded sheets of different 

 key colors. Data were punched on the cards directly from the 

 intermediate coded sheets. 



Sighting deck. — The sighting card includes all data that pertain 

 .to each individual sighting. We define a sighting as the observation 

 of a bird or group of birds acting as a unit. Data for the following 

 fields were entered in the indicated columns on the green intermediate 

 sheets (fig. 3) for the sighting cards (card code 99 in columns 1-2) : 



Ship name 3-5 



Cruise number 6-9 



Date 10-15 



Local time 16-19 



Position 20-28 



Species identification 29-34 



Association code 35 



Species identification reliability 36 



Number 37-41 



Number reliability 42 



Direction of bird movement 43 



Behavior 44 



Color marking 45 



Method of marking 46 



Age 47 



Sex 48 



Color- plumage phase 49 



Molt 50 



Whether or not a specimen was col- 

 lected 51 



Food association 52 



Special weather conditions 53 



Special information 54 



Duration of sighting (minutes) 55-57 



Ship's speed (knots) 58-59 



Ship's direction 60-61 



Distance to nearest land (nautical 

 miles) 62-65 



Distance to nearest breeding area 

 (nautical miles) 66-69 



[Columns 70-80 were not utilized on 

 the sighting cards for this program.] 



Each ship used for observations was assigned a code number; the 

 Cromwell was 006. Cruises were coded serially for each ship. The 

 date was expressed as month, day, and year with only the final two 

 digits being coded for year. Local and all other absolute times were 

 expressed to the nearest minute in the 24-hour system. 



Position of the sighting and all other localities were expressed as 

 coordinates of longitude and latitude. In order to economize on 

 columns, the world was divided into octants along the equator and 

 each 90° meridian. The octants (column 20) were numbered from 

 0-3 in the Northern Hemisphere and from 5-8 in the Southern Hemi- 

 sphere beginning at 0°-89°59'W and proceeding west. In this way it 

 was not necessary to express the 100's figure and east and west for 

 longitude nor north and south for latitude. 



The numerical code for seabird species is based on a revised check- 

 list of the seabirds of the world. It is designed to permit data re- 

 trieval hierarchically by class, order, family, genus, species, and/or 

 subspecies. The code requires only six digits because of the relatively 



