Visual observations recorded during the New Zealand Australian Antarctic Ecosystems Voyage 2015

• 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; ECOSYSTEM FUNCTIONS; BIOSPHERE; ECOLOGICAL DYNAMICS; ANTARCTIC BLUE WHALE VOYAGE; CETACEAN VISUAL OBSERVATIONS; LOGGER DATABASE; MARK RECAPTURE; BLUE WHALE; IWC SORP; R/V TANGAROA; BINOCULAR > BINOCULAR; SHIPS; AMD/AU; AMD; CEOS; CONTINENT > ANTARCTICA; GEOGRAPHIC REGION > POLAR; OCEAN > SOUTHERN OCEAN > ROSS SEA; Antarctic; Southern Ocean; Ross Sea; New Zealand; Antarc*; Antarctica; baleen whale; baleen whales; Blue whale
• Online Access: https://researchdata.ands.org.au/visual-observations-recorded-voyage-2015/968362; https://data.aad.gov.au/metadata/records/AAS_4102_Visobs2015; https://data.aad.gov.au/aadc/metadata/citation.cfm?entry_id=AAS_4102_Visobs2015; https://data.aad.gov.au/eds/4497/download; https://secure3.aad.gov.au/proms/public/projects/report_project_public.cfm?project_no=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. All events occurring during daylight operations such as sightings, biopsy attempts and sonobuoy deployments were recorded in a customized data entry program Logger along with weather and effort data. The logger access database contains all data collected throughout theNZ/Aus Antarctic Ecosystems Voyage 2015 related to: Biopsy events (date/time in UTC, success, sample number, reaction, attempts, dart recovery, notes) Comments - time stamped (UTC) with GPS index providing additional detail Observer effort (effort status, event, number of observers and locations, ship guide and data logger) Environmental observations (sightability, sea state, swell, weather, cloud cover, visibility, intensity, glare, ice, sea surface temperature) GPS data - time indexed NMEA feed, also containing heading and ship speed Lookup - table containing topic codes describing the codes that appear in all other tables Cetacean sightings and resightings (date/time in UTC), 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 (date/time in UTC, sonobuoy number, 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.