he Outer Continental Shelf Environmental Assessment Program (OCSEAP, 1975-1985), was a program funded through the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to develop baseline data in anticipation of oil development on Alaska's Continental Shelf. The need for comprehensive geographic data on the pelagic distribution of seabirds in Alaska and the North Pacific has long been recognized. During the OCSEAP Program millions of dollars were spent to gather data on the pelagic distributions of marine birds and mammals on the continental shelves. Ancillary data were routinely collected on environmental conditions (e.g., ice, temperature, salinity). This work culminated in an atlas on the "Pelagic Distribution and Abundance of Seabirds in the Gulf of Alaska and Eastern Bering Sea" (Gould et al. 1982), which documented the at-sea distribution and abundance of 16 common seabird species in Alaska. In addition to this work, extensive reports by other key investigators laid the foundation for our understanding of the pelagic biology and distribution of seabirds in Alaska. A current version of the OCSEAP database includes 248 data files, comprising >60,000 standard transects with >325,000 records that document the environment, distribution and group size of >4,000,000 animals.