2020 Aerial survey data of southern right whales (Eubalaena australis) off southern Australia

Annual aerial surveys of southern right whales have been conducted off the southern Australian coast, between Cape Leeuwin (W.A.) and Ceduna (S.A.) over a 28 year period between 1993 and 2020, to monitor the recovery of this species following commercial whaling. We conducted an aerial survey of southern right whales between the 20th and 24th August 2020, to continue these annual series of surveys and inform the long-term population trend. The comparable count for the 2020 survey utilised the maximum count for each leg and incorporated a correction for the unsurveyed area between Head of the Bight to Ceduna due to the inability to cover whole survey as a result of COVID-19 restrictions between State borders. This resulted in 384 individuals, consisting of 156 cows accompanied by calves of the year and 72 unaccompanied adults. Of these, 126 images of individual whales have been selected for photo-identification matching. This is a significant decrease in overall sightings that has not been observed for over 13 years when compared to long term trend data for the population; last seen in 2007 (N = 286 individuals). The subsequent population estimate for the Australian ‘western’ subpopulation is 2,585 whales, which is also a significant decrease in estimated population size from 3,164 in 2019 to 2,585 in 2020. The extremely low number of unaccompanied adults (N = 68) had the greatest impact on the overall number of sightings in 2020, and is the lowest number sighted since 1993 (N = 47). Previous surveys in 2007 and 2015 have been noted as years of low whale counts that had been deemed anomalous years, although the low numbers from this survey questions this and may suggest the 3-year female breeding cycle is becoming more unpredictable. Considerable inter-annual variation in whale numbers, and cycles in population growth, makes it difficult to detect consistent and reliable changes in abundance from one year to the next, or even over longer periods of time. This severely inhibits our ability to identify immediate threats to the population and strongly supports continued annual population surveys.

Simple

Identification info

Alternate title
2020 Aerial survey data of southern right whales (Eubalaena australis) off southern Australia
Date (Publication)
2022-10-28
Edition
1
Citation identifier
Dataset DOI

Title
Information and documentation - Digital object identifier system
Date (Publication)
2012-04-23
Citation identifier
ISO 26324:2012

Citation identifier
doi:10.26179/k586-fc46

Originator

Smith, J. and Double, M.

Publisher

Australian Antarctic Data Centre

Principal investigator

SMITH, JOSH
90 South Street, Murdoch
Perth
Western Australia
6150
Australia

Principal investigator

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

Collaborator

SMITH, JOSH
90 South Street, Murdoch
Perth
Western Australia
6150
Australia

Collaborator

DOUBLE, MIKE
Australian Antarctic Division
203 Channel Highway
Kingston
Tasmania
7050
Australia
Name
CAASM Metadata
Website
https://data.aad.gov.au/metadata/records/NESP_2020_SRW

Purpose
Assessing the status and trend of Australia's southern right whale populations.
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
  • Oceans
  • Biota

Extent

N
S
E
W


Extent

Description
Temporal Coverage

Temporal extent

TimePeriod
2020-08-20 2020-08-24
Title
Population trend in right whales off southern Australia 1993-2020.
Date (Publication)
2021
Citation identifier
SC/68c/SH/18

Author

Smith, JN, Kelly, N, Double, MC and Bannister JL.
Name
IWC Scientific Committee
Other citation details
Paper submitted for consideration by the IWC Scientific Committee.
NASA/GCMD Earth Science Keywords
  • EARTH SCIENCE > BIOLOGICAL CLASSIFICATION > ANIMALS/VERTEBRATES > MAMMALS > CETACEANS > BALEEN WHALES
Keywords
  • SOUTHERN RIGHT WHALES
  • AERIAL SURVEY
NASA/GCMD Earth Science Keywords
  • CAMERAS
NASA/GCMD Earth Science Keywords
  • CESSNA 172 SKYHAWK
NASA/GCMD Earth Science Keywords
  • AMD/AU
  • AMD
  • CEOS
NASA/GCMD Earth Science Keywords
  • OCEAN > SOUTHERN OCEAN
  • CONTINENT > AUSTRALIA/NEW ZEALAND > AUSTRALIA
  • GEOGRAPHIC REGION > POLAR

Resource constraints

Use limitation
This metadata record is publicly available.

Resource constraints

Access constraints
licence
Other constraints
These data are publicly available for download from the provided URL.

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 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=NESP_2020_SRW 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

Distributor

Fees
Free
Planned available datetime
2022-10-28T00:00:00
Units of distribution
kb
Transfer size
37
Distribution format
  • Excel

OnLine resource
GET DATA > DIRECT DOWNLOAD

Download the dataset.

OnLine resource
VIEW RELATED INFORMATION

Citation reference for this metadata record and dataset.

Resource lineage

Statement
Photo quality will be variable and requires assessment prior to assimilation into photo-identification catalogue
Hierarchy level
Dataset
Maintenance and update frequency
As needed
Maintenance note
2022-10-28 - record created by Dave Connell from a template completed by Josh Smith.

Metadata

Metadata identifier
string/NESP_2020_SRW

Language
English
Character encoding
UTF8

Author

SMITH, JOSH
90 South Street, Murdoch
Perth
Western Australia
6150
Australia

Sponsor

Australian Antarctic Division

Owner

AADC

Type of resource

Resource scope
Dataset

Alternative metadata reference

Title
gov.nasa.gsfc.gcmd
Citation identifier
9021cddd-ed6f-4cf7-b34b-87074415881c

Alternative metadata reference

Title
gov.nasa.gsfc.gcmd
Date (Last Revision)
2022-10-28T00:30:03

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/NESP_2020_SRW

Point of truth for the metadata record

Date info (Creation)
2022-10-28T00:00:00
Date info (Last Update)
2022-10-28

Metadata standard

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

Overviews

Spatial extent

N
S
E
W


Keywords


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