Visual observations recorded during the Antarctic blue whale voyage to the Southern Ocean 2013

• Other Authors: AADC (originator), AU/AADC > Australian Antarctic Data Centre, Australia (resourceProvider)
• Format: Dataset
• Language: unknown
• Published: Australian Ocean Data Network
• Subjects: biota; oceans; BALEEN WHALES; EARTH SCIENCE; BIOLOGICAL CLASSIFICATION; ANIMALS/VERTEBRATES; MAMMALS; CETACEANS; TOOTHED WHALES; ANTARCTIC BLUE WHALE VOYAGE; CETACEAN VISUAL OBSERVATIONS; LOGGER DATABASE; MARK RECAPTURE; BLUE WHALE; FV AMALTAL EXPLORER; BINOCULAR > BINOCULAR; Computer > Computer; SHIPS; AMD/AU; AMD; CEOS; GEOGRAPHIC REGION > POLAR; OCEAN > SOUTHERN OCEAN; CONTINENT > ANTARCTICA; Antarctic; Southern Ocean; The Antarctic; Antarc*; Antarctica; baleen whale; baleen whales; Blue whale; toothed whales
• Online Access: https://researchdata.ands.org.au/visual-observations-recorded-ocean-2013/967087; https://data.aad.gov.au/metadata/records/AAS_4102_Visobs2013; https://data.aad.gov.au/eds/4482/download; https://data.aad.gov.au/aadc/metadata/citation.cfm?entry_id=AAS_4102_Visobs2013; https://secure3.aad.gov.au/proms/public/projects/report_project_public.cfm?project_no=AAS_4102

The ‘Logger’ data entry system was developed by the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) and is a flexible system to record information during a voyage. This system was the primary data entry system for the voyage and all events were recorded in Logger’s database. The logger access database contains all data collected throughout the Antarctic blue whale voyage related to: Observer effort (effort status, event, number of observers and locations, ship guide and data logger) Cetacean sightings and resightings (time, sighting number, sighting platform, estimate distance, binocular reticles, angle, species, sighting cue, heading, estimate of number of individuals, observer of sighting, behaviour, pod compaction, comments) Sonobuoy deployments (time, sonobuoy number, notes) Environmental observations (sightability, sea state, swell, weather, cloud cover, visibility, intensity, glare, ice, sea surface temperature) GPS data (time indexed NMEA feed) CTD deployments (time, notes) Biopsy events (time, success, sample number, reaction, attempts, dart recovery, notes) Systematic sightings data including quantified effort, environmental co-variates that may affect detection probability and initial locations relative to the vessel of all sightings were collected whenever possible. These data have the potential to contribute to analyses of the following: (i) Distribution patterns and localised density of other baleen whale species (humpback, fin and minke whales) with respect to aggregations of blue whales and other co-variates such as distance from ice edge; (ii) Blue whales that were seen but not heard provide data on acoustic detection probability; (iii) Spatial scale and density of blue whales within aggregations including comparisons with acoustic data and average group size; and (iv) Comparisons of observed locations of fin and humpback whales with bearings of vocalisations heard on sonobuoys to enable better descriptions of the acoustic repertoire of these species in the Southern Ocean.