Seal database of known-age animals from the Antarctic and subantarctic Southern Ocean
This database is a compendium of histories of known age seals (Weddell and Southern elephant) from observations across the Southern Ocean but focussed on Macquarie Island, Marion Island, Heard Island, Mawson and the Vestfold Hills.
At Macquarie Island 1000 seals were weighed per annum between 1993-2003 at birth and individually marked with two plastic flipper tags in the inter-digital webbing of their hind flippers. These tagged seals were weighed again at weaning, when length, girth, fat depth, and flipper measurements were made. Three weeks after weaning 2000 seals were permanently and individually marked by hot-iron branding. Recaptures and re-weighings of these known aged individuals were used to calculate growth and age-specific survival of the seals.
Similar data were collected from elephant seals between 1950 and 1965 when seals were individually marked by hot-iron branding. Mark-recapture data from these cohorts were used to assess the demography of the declining population. Length and mass data were also collected for these cohorts and were used, for the first time, to assess the growth of individual seals without killing them.
At Marion Island all the elephant seals have been individually marked with two plastic flipper tags in their rear flippers. Recaptures of these seals were used to compare survival at Marion and Macquarie Islands.
At Heard Island, seals were branded between 1949-1953. Seal length was measured in feet and inches. Recaptures of seals were made up until 1955, and growth and age-specific survival was calculated. Survival data from Heard Island were compared with concurrent data from Macquarie Island.
The database was held by the Australian Antarctic Data Centre, but was taken offline due to maintenance problems. A snapshot of the database was taken in June 2018 and stored in an access database.
This work was completed as part of ASAC project 90.
Simple
Identification info
- Alternate title
- Seal database of known-age animals from the Antarctic and subantarctic Southern Ocean
- Date (Publication)
- 2020-11-16
- Edition
- 2
- 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:10.4225/15/5b347aa58b93e
Originator
Publisher
Principal investigator
Principal investigator
Principal investigator
Principal investigator
Collaborator
- Name
- CAASM Metadata
- Status
- Completed
Custodian
- Topic category
-
- Oceans
- Biota
Extent
Extent
- Description
- Temporal Coverage
Temporal extent
- TimePeriod
- 1950-01-01 2015-01-31
- NASA/GCMD Earth Science Keywords
-
- EARTH SCIENCE > BIOLOGICAL CLASSIFICATION > ANIMALS/VERTEBRATES > MAMMALS > CARNIVORES > SEALS/SEA LIONS/WALRUSES
- Keywords
-
- LEOPARD SEALS
- MACQUARIE ISLAND
- MARION ISLAND
- SOUTHERN ELEPHANT SEAL
- MAWSON
- VESTFOLD HILLS
- WEDDELL SEAL
- NASA/GCMD Earth Science Keywords
-
- VISUAL OBSERVATIONS
- NASA/GCMD Earth Science Keywords
-
- FIELD SURVEYS
- NASA/GCMD Earth Science Keywords
-
- OBIS > OCEAN BIOGEOGRAPHIC INFORMATION SYSTEM
- COML > CENSUS OF MARINE LIFE
- NASA/GCMD Earth Science Keywords
-
- AMD/AU
- CEOS
- AMD
- NASA/GCMD Earth Science Keywords
-
- OCEAN > ATLANTIC OCEAN > SOUTH ATLANTIC OCEAN
- OCEAN > INDIAN OCEAN
- OCEAN > SOUTHERN OCEAN
- OCEAN > PACIFIC OCEAN > SOUTH PACIFIC OCEAN
- CONTINENT > AUSTRALIA/NEW ZEALAND > AUSTRALIA > Heard Island
- OCEAN > SOUTHERN OCEAN > MACQUARIE ISLAND
- CONTINENT > ANTARCTICA
- GEOGRAPHIC REGION > POLAR
Resource constraints
- Use limitation
- This metadata record is publicly available.
Resource constraints
- Access constraints
- licence
- Other constraints
- These data had been held in an online database, but that application has since been removed from the live pages of the Australian Antarctic Data Centre. An extract of the database was taken in June, 2018 and has been attached to this metadata record, and is publicly available for download. The Access file attached to this metadata record comprises the amalgamated database file. Several subsets have been created (which may have different access privileges) - see the child records for details.
Resource constraints
- File type
- Portable Network Graphic
- 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=TAGS when using these data.
- Language
- English
- Character encoding
- UTF8
Distribution Information
Distributor
Distributor
Distributor
- Fees
- Free
- Planned available datetime
- 2020-11-16T00:00:00
- Units of distribution
- MB
- Transfer size
- 32.4
- Distribution format
-
- Access
- OnLine resource
-
GET DATA > DIRECT DOWNLOAD
Download the June 2018 extract of the Seal Tagging Database
- OnLine resource
-
PROJECT HOME PAGE
Public information for ASAC project 90
- OnLine resource
-
VIEW RELATED INFORMATION
Citation reference for this metadata record and dataset
Resource lineage
- Statement
- Observations are approximately 95% accurate. Errors in observation and entry possible where animals are misplaced. It is strongly recommended that prospective users of these data contact the investigators before using these data. Mark Hindell Mark.Hindell@utas.edu.au Clive McMahon clive.mcmahon@utas.edu.au John van den Hoff John.Vandenhoff@aad.gov.au
- Hierarchy level
- Dataset
- Maintenance and update frequency
- As needed
- Maintenance note
- 2012-01-12 - record updated by Dave Connell to include a link to the database. 2016-06-16 - record updated by Dave Connell to note that the seal monitoring database is no longer online, and to include a link to a snapshot of the database. 2017-03-24 - record updated by Dave Connell after csv files were included in the download. 2018-06-28 - record updated by Dave Connell after data were reorganised into Access Database files. 2020-11-16 - record updated by Dave Connell to publicly release the data.
Metadata
- Metadata identifier
- string/TAGS
- Language
- English
- Character encoding
- UTF8
Sponsor
Owner
Type of resource
- Resource scope
- Dataset
Alternative metadata reference
- Title
- gov.nasa.gsfc.gcmd
- Citation identifier
- 289d5c5e-54e8-4605-828c-99432228be9f
Alternative metadata reference
- Title
- gov.nasa.gsfc.gcmd
- Date (Last Revision)
- 2020-11-16T14:53:46
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/TAGS
Point of truth for the metadata record
- Date info (Creation)
- 2000-05-07T00:00:00
- Date info (Last Update)
- 2020-11-16
Metadata standard
- Title
- ISO 19115-3
- Edition
- 2014
- Other citation details
- Version 1
- Title
- DIF to ISO 19115-1 Profile