Satellite tracks of humpback whales generated from tag deployments during the Antarctic Whale Expedition (AWE) 2009/10

• Other Authors: GALES, NICK (hasPrincipalInvestigator), ANDREWS-GOFF, VIRGINIA (hasPrincipalInvestigator), ANDREWS-GOFF, VIRGINIA (processor), DOUBLE, MIKE (hasPrincipalInvestigator), Australian Antarctic Data Centre (publisher)
• Format: Dataset
• Language: unknown
• Published: Australian Antarctic Data Centre
• Subjects: biota; oceans; BALEEN WHALES; EARTH SCIENCE; BIOLOGICAL CLASSIFICATION; ANIMALS/VERTEBRATES; MAMMALS; CETACEANS; HUMPBACK WHALE; ANIMAL MOVEMENT; SATELLITE TAG; IWC SORP; ANTARCTIC WHALE EXPEDITION (AWE); ARGOS > ARGOS Data Collection and Position Location System; R/V TANGAROA; SATELLITES; GEOGRAPHIC REGION > POLAR; CONTINENT > ANTARCTICA; OCEAN > SOUTHERN OCEAN; Antarctic; Southern Ocean; The Antarctic; New Zealand; Antarc*; Antarctica; baleen whales; Humpback Whale
• Online Access: https://researchdata.ands.org.au/satellite-tracks-humpback-awe-200910/1329912; https://doi.org/10.4225/15/5ae67dbd96e55; https://data.aad.gov.au/metadata/records/AAS_2941_humpback_whale_satellite_tracks_AWE_2010; http://nla.gov.au/nla.party-617536

Satellite derived tracks of humpback whales tagged on their Antarctic feeding grounds. Data can be found here: https://data.aad.gov.au/aadc/argos/display_campaign.cfm?campaign_id=83 Satellite tags were deployed on adult humpback whales with a modified version of the Air Rocket Transmitter System (ARTS, Restech) and a purpose-designed projectile carrier at a pressure of 7.5 – 10 bar. A custom-designed, 80mm anchor section is attached to a stainless steel cylindrical housing containing a location-only transmitter (SPOT-5 by Wildlife Computers, Redmond, Washington, USA and Kiwisat 202 Cricket by Sirtrack, Havelock North, New Zealand). This superseded anchor design resulted in the anchor section disarticulating upon deployment in order to achieve improved tag retention times while minimising impact. The tags were sterilised with ethylene oxide prior to deployment and implanted up to 290mm into the skin, blubber, interfacial layers and outer muscle mass of the whale. Tags were programmed to transmit to the Argos satellite system at various duty cycles and repetition rates for a maximum of 720 transmissions per day. These transmissions are relayed to processing centres which calculate the transmitter’s location by measuring the Doppler Effect on transmission frequency.