2012 Blue whale voyages in the Bonney Upwelling, Australia

This metadata record is a parent for all data collected during the 2012 Blue whale voyages. Description of specific data sets can be found within child datasets.

Simple

Identification info

Alternate title
2012 Blue whale voyages in the Bonney Upwelling, Australia
Date (Publication)
2017-09-11
Edition
1

Originator

Kelly, N., Andrews-Goff, V., Miller, B.S. and Double, M.

Publisher

Australian Antarctic Data Centre

Principal investigator

KELLY, NATALIE
Australian Antarctic Division
203 Channel Highway
Kingston
Tasmania
7050
Australia

Principal investigator

ANDREWS-GOFF, VIRGINIA
Australian Antarctic Division
203 Channel Highway
Kingston
Tasmania
7050
Australia

Principal investigator

MILLER, BRIAN SETH
Australian Antarctic Division
203 Channel Highway
Kingston
Tasmania
7050
Australia

Principal investigator

DOUBLE, MIKE
Australian Antarctic Division
203 Channel Highway
Kingston
Tasmania
7050
Australia

Collaborator

KELLY, NATALIE
Australian Antarctic Division
203 Channel Highway
Kingston
Tasmania
7050
Australia

Collaborator

ANDREWS-GOFF, VIRGINIA
Australian Antarctic Division
203 Channel Highway
Kingston
Tasmania
7050
Australia

Collaborator

MILLER, BRIAN SETH
Australian Antarctic Division
203 Channel Highway
Kingston
Tasmania
7050
Australia
Name
CAASM Metadata
Website
https://data.aad.gov.au/metadata/records/AAS_4102_2012_Blue_Whale_Voyages

Purpose
The Antarctic Blue Whale Project (ABWP; an initiative within the International Whaling Commission Southern Ocean Research Partnership - IWC SORP) has the primary aim of estimating circumpolar abundance of Antarctic blue whales (Balaenoptera musculus intermedia). Mark-recapture methods, using genetics and photo-ID, will form the foundation of future blue whale circumpolar abundance estimates produced by the ABWP, but the success of these methods require a high number of encounters with these animals. In the Southern Ocean, acoustic detection ranges of blue whales far outstrip visual sighting ranges, so real-time acoustic tracking can be used to increase the total number of whale sightings, thus making more efficient use of expensive ship time. Before undertaking an Antarctic blue whale research program that features acoustic tracking, instrumentation and methods specific to acoustic tracking of blue whales must be developed, and the capabilities and limitations of such an acoustic tracking system should be quantified. The Australian Antarctic Division undertook two voyages, both three weeks in length, in January and March, 2012, respectively. The surveys targeted the Bonney Upwelling, along the south-east coast of Australia, an area known to be a summer (Nov-May) feeding ground for pygmy blue whales; the surveys focussed on the area bounded by 141.0-143.0 degrees E and 38.0-39.5 degrees S. These voyages were undertaken in order to address the practicalities of 24-hour/day real-time acoustic tracking. Achieving these goals required characterising the capabilities of the acoustic tracking system, assessing the practicality and performance of different survey protocols, and integrating acoustic tracking with visual survey methods and mark-recapture methodologies. Of the six weeks allocated across both surveys, weather allowed for a total of 20 survey days (ten for each survey). The tracking system operated continuously during the voyages recording nearly 500 hours of audio, while acousticians processed over 7000 blue whale calls all in 'real-time'. During the voyages 33 vocalising blue whales were pursued via acoustic tracking and of these 28 yielded visual sightings of groups of one or more whales, giving a combined acoustic success rate of 85%. Sighting effort was 785 n.miles during the January voyage and 669.6 n.miles during March voyage, over 127.0 and 104.7 hours, respectively. The first voyage yielded 37 sightings of blue or like blue whales; a total of 70 animals. During the second voyage there were 15 sightings of blue or like blue whales; 34 animals in total, in addition to three sightings of unidentified large baleen whales. Other noteworthy sightings include groups of Shepherd’s beaked whales (Tasmacetus shepherdi) on both surveys; a sei whale in the first survey; and a fin whale in the second survey. Photo-ID during the first voyage identified 24 individuals; there were 24 individuals identified during the second voyage as well. There was one animal re-sighted between the two voyages, leaving 47 individuals identified in total.
Status
Completed

Custodian

AU/AADC > Australian Antarctic Data Centre, Australia - AADC, DATA OFFICER (DATA CENTER CONTACT)
Australian Antarctic Division
203 Channel Highway
Kingston
Tasmania
7050
Australia
Topic category
  • Biota
  • Oceans

Extent

N
S
E
W


Extent

Description
Temporal Coverage

Temporal extent

TimePeriod
2012-01-12 2012-01-25

Extent

Description
Temporal Coverage

Temporal extent

TimePeriod
2012-03-13 2012-03-30
Title
Cruise report on SORP 2012 blue whale voyages: Development of acoustic methods.
Date (Publication)
2012
Citation identifier
SC/64/SH11

Author

Miller, B. S., Kelly, N., Double, M. C., Childerhouse, S. J., Laverick, S., and Gales, N.
Other citation details
Report submitted to the Scientific Committee of the International Whaling Commission. Panama City, Panama.
NASA/GCMD Earth Science Keywords
  • EARTH SCIENCE > BIOLOGICAL CLASSIFICATION > ANIMALS/VERTEBRATES > MAMMALS > CETACEANS > BALEEN WHALES
  • EARTH SCIENCE > OCEANS > OCEAN ACOUSTICS > AMBIENT NOISE
  • EARTH SCIENCE > OCEANS > MARINE ENVIRONMENT MONITORING
Keywords
  • ANTARCTIC BLUE WHALE
  • BLUE WHALE
  • IWC SORP
  • ANTARCTIC BLUE WHALE VOYAGE
  • BONNEY UPWELLING
  • PYGMY BLUE WHALE
  • MV EASTERN VOYAGER
  • PHOTO IDENTIFICATION
  • REAL-TIME PASSIVE ACOUSTIC TRACKING AND TARGETING
NASA/GCMD Earth Science Keywords
  • SONOBUOYS
  • VISUAL OBSERVATIONS
  • CAMERAS
  • BINOCULAR > BINOCULAR
  • ACOUSTIC MOORING
NASA/GCMD Earth Science Keywords
  • SHIPS
NASA/GCMD Earth Science Keywords
  • AMD/AU
  • AMD
  • CEOS
NASA/GCMD Earth Science Keywords
  • GEOGRAPHIC REGION > POLAR
  • OCEAN > SOUTHERN OCEAN
  • CONTINENT > ANTARCTICA

Resource constraints

Use limitation
This metadata record is publicly available.

Resource constraints

Access constraints
licence
Other constraints
See the child records for access to the data.

Resource constraints

File type
Portable Network Graphic
Linkage
Creative Commons by Attribution logo

Title
Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
Website
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode

Legal code for Creative Commons by Attribution 4.0 International license

Use constraints
licence
Other constraints
This data associated with the 2012 Blue whale voyages has been collected under the International Whaling Commission’s (IWC) Southern Ocean Research Partnership (SORP). The IWC-SORP ethos is one of open collaboration, communication and data sharing. The Data User will acknowledge the use of the IWC SORP dataset by the following statement: Data provided by the International Whaling Commission’s Southern Ocean Research Partnership were all based upon non-lethal samples collected under a protocol approved by the Australian Antarctic Program Animal Ethics Committee (AAPAEC). These data were provided by the Partnership for the purpose of collaborative investigation. This data set conforms to the CCBY Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). Please follow instructions listed in the citation reference provided at http://data.aad.gov.au/aadc/metadata/citation.cfm?entry_id=AAS_4102_2012_Blue_Whale_Voyages when using these data.
Language
English
Character encoding
UTF8

Distribution Information

Distributor

Distributor

AU/AADC > Australian Antarctic Data Centre, Australia - AADC, DATA OFFICER (DATA CENTER CONTACT)
Australian Antarctic Division
203 Channel Highway
Kingston
Tasmania
7050
Australia
OnLine resource
PROJECT HOME PAGE

Public information for AAS project AAS_4102

OnLine resource
VIEW RELATED INFORMATION

Citation reference for this metadata record and dataset.

Maintenance and update frequency
As needed
Maintenance note
2017-09-11 - record created by Virgina Andrews-Goff.

Metadata

Metadata identifier
string/AAS_4102_2012_Blue_Whale_Voyages

Language
English
Character encoding
UTF8

Author

ANDREWS-GOFF, VIRGINIA
Australian Antarctic Division
203 Channel Highway
Kingston
Tasmania
7050
Australia

Sponsor

Australian Antarctic Division

Owner

AADC
Title
Parent Metadata Record
Citation identifier
AAS_4102

Type of resource

Resource scope
Dataset

Alternative metadata reference

Title
gov.nasa.gsfc.gcmd
Citation identifier
d80bb200-a133-4d9d-9d26-c89c3ac038e1

Alternative metadata reference

Title
gov.nasa.gsfc.gcmd
Date (Last Revision)
2021-11-17T12:22:29

Identifier

Description
metadata.extraction_date

Alternative metadata reference

Title
gov.nasa.gsfc.gcmd
Citation identifier
8.6

Metadata linkage
http://data.aad.gov.au/metadata/records/AAS_4102_2012_Blue_Whale_Voyages

Point of truth for the metadata record

Date info (Creation)
2017-09-11T00:00:00
Date info (Last Update)
2017-09-11

Metadata standard

Title
ISO 19115-3
Edition
2014
Other citation details
Version 1
Title
DIF to ISO 19115-1 Profile
 
 

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