Aquasis | American manatee (Trichechus manatus) sightings during aerial surveys in the Potiguar Basin, Northeastern Brazil

This dataset contains records of American manatee (*Trichechus manatus*) obtained during systematicaerial surveys conducted by Aquasis along the eastern coast of Ceará, northeastern Brazil, as part of the project “Status de Conservação e Plano de Ação Preliminar para o Peixe-boi Marinho (*Trichechus manatus manatus*) no Litoral Leste do Ceará”, funded by the Brazilian Ministry of the Environment through the National Environment Fund (FNMA).

Surveys were conducted between June 2003 and Ocotber 2004 to investigate the spatial distribution of manatees. A total of 11 aerial surveys were conducted, comprising approximately 21.55 hours of monitoring effort. Manatee sightings recorded during the surveys were georeferenced and associated with their respective sampling events.