Ross seal dive and haul-out data from expeditions SCALE (MV SA Agulhas II, 2019), PS111 (RV Polarstern, 2018) and S55 (MV SA Agulhas II, 2016)

• Main Authors: Wege, Mia, Bornemann, Horst, Bester, Marthán Nieuwoudt
• Format: Dataset
• Language: English
• Published: PANGAEA 2021
• Subjects: Marine Mammal Tracking; MMT; Lazarev; Lazarev Sea; Queen Maud Land; SANAE; Southern Ocean; Weddell; Weddell Sea; Alfred Wegener Institute; Ross Seal
• Online Access: https://doi.pangaea.de/10.1594/PANGAEA.933516; https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.933516

Ross seals (Ommatophoca rossii) were instrumented with satellite-linked position-temperature tags. Primary data were collected during spring and summer expeditions carried out by scientists of the Mammal Research Institute (MRI, University of Pretoria), South Africa and the Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research (AWI), Germany. The expeditions were located north of the Lazarev Sea (SA Agulhas II Southern oCean seAsonaL Experiment Spring cruise, 2019) and in the eastern Weddell Sea and King Håkon VII Sea off Queen Maud Land (RV Polarstern PS111 expedition, 2018; SA Agulhas II SANAE 55 expedition, 2016). Processing of the primary data followed an established workflow (2018, 2016). Seals (n = 15) were captured along the ships' tracks and instrumented with Argos (CLS, Toulouse, France) satellite-linked dive recorders (SPLASH10-309A or SPLASH9) or location-only satellite tags (SPOT6) of different technical specifications (Wildlife Computers, Redmond, WA, USA) to investigate their haul-out and diving behaviour. Of the 15 seals tagged, five (S55: n = 3; PS111: n = 2) SPLASH10-309A (4) or SPLASH9 (1) dive recorders and five (S55: n = 3; SCALE: n = 2) SPOT 6 satellite tracking devices that also record the haul-out behaviour of animals revealed data for 35-348 days and were considered for analyses. All R-codes can be found under Github.