Strandings of marine mammals, sea turtles and seabirds along the central-north Santa Catarina coast, Brazil, from 2015 to 2018

To assess the potential impacts on seabirds, turtles and marine mammals from oil and gas production from the oceanic Pre-Salt province at Brazil’s Santos Basin, the Brazilian environmental agency (IBAMA) required PETROBRAS, the main oil company in the basin, to implement the “Programa de Monitoramento de Praias da Bacia de Santos” (Santos Basin Beach Monitoring Program - PMP-BS). Since 2015 PMP-BS has been operating along the states of Santa Catarina, Paraná, São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, to collect biological data from live and dead stranded animals. This dataset comprises the first three years of monitoring (September 2015 to August 2018) along the central-north Santa Catarina coastline, from 26°34'55.154" S 48°39'54.708" W to 27°22'25.298" S 48°32'31.164" W. During this period, 6035 animals of 47 species were recorded, 87.84% of which were dead and 12.16% alive, when first observed. This dataset represents the first high-intensity monitoring effort in the area and is important to define baselines for future comparisons and understand impacts of human activities.