Taupp Thomas taupp@bafg.de 0000-0002-4488-582X Federal Institute of Hydrology BfG http://www.bafg.de https://ror.org/03kdvpr29 Gmeiner Isabell 0009-0003-6936-980X Federal Institute of Hydrology BfG http://www.bafg.de https://ror.org/03kdvpr29 Michel Lucie michel@bafg.de 0000-0002-5516-4630 Federal Institute of Hydrology BfG http://www.bafg.de https://ror.org/03kdvpr29 Avila Isabel Cristina 0000-0003-1389-8908 Stiftung Tierärztliche Hochschule Hannover, Klinik für kleine Haustiere TIHO Nachtsheim Dominik Andre d.nachtsheim@outlook.de 0000-0002-1010-3527 Stiftung Tierärztliche Hochschule Hannover, Klinik für kleine Haustiere TIHO Siebert Ursula ursula.siebert@tiho-hannover.de 0000-0002-2556-3948 Stiftung Tierärztliche Hochschule Hannover, Klinik für kleine Haustiere TIHO Winkelmann Carola 0000-0002-3797-8454 Federal Institute of Hydrology BfG http://www.bafg.de https://ror.org/03kdvpr29 2026 Harbour and grey seal counts in the Elbe Estuary, Germany, between Wedel and Scharhörn in 2023/2024 dataset https://doi.pangaea.de/10.1594/PANGAEA.995125 2026-05-28T08:31:24 Aerial surveys were conducted in the Elbe Estuary, Germany, to count seals on their haul-out sites. Haul-out sites were located within the intertidal zone, usually close to the waterway or tidal creeks. The north-western border of the study area was located at the approximate river-km 753 (island of Scharhörn) and the south-eastern border was located at river-km 632 (Mühlenberger Loch). Flights were performed monthly from August 2023 until July 2024 (11 flights in total) at low tide. Within each month, a flight date in the middle of the month was chosen, depending on the tide and weather conditions. The flight scheduled for December 2023 had to be canceled due to persistently unfavorable weather conditions. Flights were performed with a twin-engined aircraft at a height of approximately 500 feet and at an average speed of 100 knots. The flight routes were tracked via GPS. Sighted seals were photographed on their haul-out sites and the corresponding geographic position was recorded. In the office, the photos were used to identify the species and age class, and count the animals. Bundesanstalt für Gewässerkunde 2026 Seehunde und Kegelrobben im Elbeästuar von Wedel bis Scharhörn 2023/2024 report Bundesanstalt für Gewässerkunde, Koblenz, BfG-2241 https://doi.org/10.5675/BfG-2241 8.37365018 9.814018333 53.54928919 53.99521859 8.77503802195447 53.909389764238554 2023-08-16T00:00:00 2024-07-08T00:00:00 point Elbe_Estuary_2023-2024 53.55246 9.8048601 2023-08-16T00:00:00 53.9680774 8.38007399 2024-07-08T00:00:00 Aircraft AC 1911 CC-BY-4.0 Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Event label Event Taupp Thomas taupp@bafg.de 0000-0002-4488-582X Event DATE/TIME Date/Time http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_8601 Time T http://dbpedia.org/resource/Time Taupp Thomas taupp@bafg.de 0000-0002-4488-582X Date/Time LATITUDE Latitude http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_6709 Taupp Thomas taupp@bafg.de 0000-0002-4488-582X Latitude LONGITUDE Longitude http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_6709 Taupp Thomas taupp@bafg.de 0000-0002-4488-582X Longitude Phoca vitulina, adult P. vitulina ad # Phoca vitulina https://www.marinespecies.org/aphia.php?p=taxdetails&id=137084 Abundance or Count Counting, visual Taupp Thomas taupp@bafg.de 0000-0002-4488-582X Number of adult harbour seals P. vitulina ad [#] Phoca vitulina, juvenil P. vitulina juv # Phoca vitulina https://www.marinespecies.org/aphia.php?p=taxdetails&id=137084 Abundance or Count Counting, visual Taupp Thomas taupp@bafg.de 0000-0002-4488-582X Number of juvenile harbour seals P. vitulina juv [#] Halichoerus grypus H. grypus # http://www.marinespecies.org/aphia.php?p=taxdetails&id=137080 Halichoerus grypus https://www.marinespecies.org/aphia.php?p=taxdetails&id=137080 Abundance or Count Counting, visual Taupp Thomas taupp@bafg.de 0000-0002-4488-582X Number of adult grey seals H. grypus [#] CurationLevelC Enhanced curation https://wiki.pangaea.de/wiki/Curation_levels Aerial survey Elbe Estuary Grey seal Halichoerus grypus Harbour seal Monitoring report Phoca vitulina GFBio NFDI4BioDiversity author117629 author117644 author117645 author117646 author55997 author66779 author72039 author72626 curlevel30 event3407846 geocode1599 geocode1600 geocode1601 geocode500000 inst1607 inst2966 license21 method10713 method307 param126448 param173023 param173024 pi72039 ref139999 term1069672 term1765736 term233 term43975 term44025 term51158 term51159 term51160 term51161 term54505 term78035 term78036 term78037 topotype2 Authors order changed: Carola Winkelmann from fourth to last author