Expanding biological data standards development processes for US IOOS: visual line transect observing community for mammal, bird, and turtle data

The US Integrated Ocean Observing System (IOOS) has recently adopted standards for biological core variables in collaboration with the US Geological Survey/Ocean Biogeographic Information System (USGS/OBIS-USA) and other federal and non-federal partners. In this Community White Paper (CWP) we provide a process to bring into IOOS a rich new source of biological observing data, visual line transect surveys, and to establish quality data standards for visual line transect observations, an important source of at-sea bird, turtle and marine mammal observation data. The processes developed through this exercise will be useful for other similar biogeographic observing efforts, such as passive acoustic point and line transect observations, tagged animal data, and mark-recapture (photo-identification) methods. Furthermore, we suggest that the processes developed through this exercise will serve as a catalyst for broadening involvement by the larger marine biological data community within the goals and processes of IOOS.