NOVA FCSH, Lisbon
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This database is the result of around 15 years of searching, selecting, compiling, and analysing written sources from European, and most particularly Iberian, authors. It provides direct quotations from primary and secondary sources in Portuguese and Spanish, and their translations into English where available.
The chronological frame spans the period from Antiquity to the 20th century, with a large focus on the late medieval and early modern periods (15th to 18th centuries). Geographically, the information is spread mostly within the Atlantic basin (North and South) with few records from the Indian and the Pacific Oceans as well.
By making this database Open Access and providing it in the Public Domain, it is freely available as a systematic organization of historical data related to marine animals, with a strong emphasis on marine mammals such as whales, sealsand sirenians. From historical descriptions of animals observed both onboard and from land, and for stranded or fished/hunted animals, it has been possible to extract information regarding perceptions, knowledge construction, and values attributed to marine animals, indigenous and European uses, mythological significance and relevant by-products such as ambergris, baleen, whale oil, shells and pearls.
The database also fills a gap related to the integration of Portuguese and Iberian sources in historical analyses. To this end, we aim to contribute to research on imperial ecology and nature appropriation, more-than-human agencies, use and transformation of coastal, marine, and oceanic spaces, marine exploitation, fishing, trading, sealing, and whaling, within the global historiography of Ocean History, History of Natural History, History of Science, Colonial studies, Animal studies, and Environmental History.
The SeaCite database is a bespoke, in-house programmed, searchable, online resource. It has been established in conjunction with the specific research efforts of the CONCHA and 4Oceans projects together with partner institutions in order to provide a simple and approachable means of accessing valuable research information originating from qualitative data sources which are provided in a uniform, information rich, quantitative format.
The underlying programming has been developed using Php (Hypertext Pre-processing) and MySQL (My Structured Query Language) coding in association with HTML, Java and Javascript sequences to enhance accessibility. It is focused on user experience with a view to promoting visual and physical accessibility options, but does not sacrifice the need for simplicity and clarity which are necessary to enable academic and general research processes.
With full data compliance and directed structuring within the DarwinCore ontology and data schema, the database is fully prepared for integration into Big Data structures to ensure international accessibility. As a fundamental element, all of the underlying data is provided duty and royalty free to ensure full public domain access; the system is covered by Creative Commons Licensing regulations (CC-BY4.0) to ensure that relevant academic copyrights are in force without hindering the full levels of public access which are essential to the ethos of the CONCHA and 4Oceans projects.
Please feel free to access, download, and work with the data; all element may be used freely but the Creative Commons license ergulations must be applied (i.e.: please cite the authors when any of the data are used.
