Dataset for: Evidence of trophic separation among threatened mobulid rays in Aotearoa New Zealand: Insights from species distribution modeling
Description
Oceanic manta ray (Mobula birostris) dataset used for the publication "Evidence of trophic separation among threatened mobulid rays in Aotearoa New Zealand: Insights from species distribution modeling" in review. The study looked at the spatial and temporal distribution of mobulid rays (oceanic manta ray and spinetail devil ray) on the northeastern shelf of the North Island over a study period that spanned almost two-decades. Data for oceanic manta ray (n = 366) were collecting by a combined effort from Manta Watch New Zealand and citizen scientists and contains geographic coordinates (in ESPG 4326 and 2193), year, month and day of observation. Records from the dataset that were missing coordinates or an approximate date reference (month and year) were removed. Points with positional errors (i.e., on land) were also removed. Data for spinetail devil rays (Mobula mobular) from 3rd party data is not made publicly available yet, see data availability statement in publication for further information and to get access to original data.