Pelorus Sound / Te Hoiere (HS66) Hydrographic Survey Marine Mammal Observations ...

• Main Authors: Davey, Niki, Mackay, Kevin
• Format: Dataset
• Language: English
• Published: The National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA) 2021
• Subjects: Samplingevent; Admiralty Bay; Davidson; New Zealand; DML; Killer Whale; Orca; Killer whale
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.15468/9dnqwq; https://www.gbif.org/dataset/c023c854-3bc9-43af-af49-c2290b809710

Discovery Marine Ltd (DML) and iXBlue were contracted in 2019 by Land Information New Zealand (LINZ) to undertake hydrographic surveying services for the Pelorus Sound / Te Hoiere Hydrographic Survey (HS66). Marine mammals, in particular dolphins are a regular occurrence in the Marlborough Sounds. The species are important both nationally and internationally. There are eight marine mammal species known to frequent the Sounds (Davidson et al., 2011). Two of these are classified as nationally endangered (Hectors and Bottlenose) and one is considered nationally critical (Killer whale or Orca). DML and iXBlue were contracted to map the seabed in the Marlborough Sounds (Pelorus Sound / Te Hoiere, Admiralty Bay and Te Aumiti (French Pass)) using multibeam sounders. The frequency of the sound emitted by a multibeam echo sounder is outside the hearing range of marine mammals in the Sounds, however as a precaution, best practice for minimising survey activities in the immediate proximity of marine mammals was used, ...