Edited version of a video showing three elephant seals interacting with a toothfish longline. Taken from the abstract of the referenced paper: Humans have devised fishing technologies that compete with marine predators for fish resources world-wide. One such fishery for the Patagonian toothfish (Dissostichus eleginoides) has developed interactions with a range of predators, some of which are marine mammals capable of diving to extreme depths for extended periods. A deep-sea camera system deployed within a toothfish fishery operating in the Southern Ocean acquired the first-ever video footage of an extreme-diver, the southern elephant seal (Mirounga leonina), depredating catch from longlines set at depths in excess of 1000m. The interactions recorded were non-lethal, however independent fisheries observer reports confirm elephant seal-longline interactions can be lethal. The seals behaviour of depredating catch at depth during the line soak-period differs to other surface-breathing species and thus presents a unique challenge to mitigate their by-catch. Deployments of deep-sea cameras on exploratory fishing gear prior to licencing and permit approvals would gather valuable information regarding the nature of interactions between deep diving/dwelling marine species and longline fisheries operating at bathypelagic depths. Furthermore, the positive identification by sex and age class of species interacting with commercial fisheries would assist in formulating management plans and mitigation strategies founded on species-specific life-history strategies.

The RAN Australian Hydrographic Service conducted hydrographic survey HI290 at Heard Island, February to March 1997. The survey dataset, which includes the Report of Survey, was provided to the Australian Antarctic Data Centre by the Australian Hydrographic Office and is available for download from a Related URL in this metadata record. The survey was lead by LT R.D.Bowden. The spatial extent given in this metadata record is that of Heard Island as the spatial extent of the survey is unknown to the Australian Antarctic Data Centre. The data are not suitable for navigation.

This dataset is a spreadsheet with planimetric areas of the seabed within the Heard Island and McDonald Islands Marine Reserve and adjacent Conservation Zone. The areas are provided for one hundred metre depth ranges and are given in square kilometres. The areas were calculated for the Wildlife Conservation and Fisheries research group at the Australian Antarctic Division. Depth data was sourced from a bathymetric grid of the Kerguelen Plateau by R.J.Beaman of James Cook University, Australia and P.E.O'Brien of Geoscience Australia and published by Geoscience Australia. See a Related URL below for a link to the metadata record describing the bathymetric grid. The Marine Reserve and Conservation Zone boundaries were sourced from the Australian Government's Australian Marine Parks Division. See the provided URL for a link to the department's website.

Ship-based observations of birds, seals and whales from the original 'ANARE Bird Log' books have been recovered into a single repository of sightings and associated abiotic information. ANARE (Australian National Antarctic Research Expeditions) is the historic acronym for these voyages. A few voyages have been included that were not part of ANARE but have Australian observers or volunteer observers. Voyages start from the 1947/48 austral season up to 1982/83 with an average of 3 voyages per season. There are a few voyages where there is no data. It is not known if either no bird observations were undertaken during this period or that the bird logs exist if observations were undertaken. Current counts are birds, seals and whales Observing platforms include the following ships - Wyatt Earp, Tottan, River Fitzroy, Norsel, Kista Dan, Thala Dan, Magga Dan, Nella Dan, Lady Franklin and Nanok S and a single voyage from the private yacht Solo. The quality and quantity of abiotic data associated with observations such as air temperature, sea ice cover etc vary immensely from voyage to voyage. Where possible this data has been entered. This dataset contains very little information on estimates of survey effort and cannot be used to derive useful presence/absence spatial coverages of species during this period. It is purely sighting data only.

This database provides the most comprehensive systematic list of mega-epibenthic assemblages in the Australian Economic Exclusive Zone (AEEZ) of Heard Island and McDonalds Islands (HIMI) at water depths between 168 and 970 m. Data were collected to better understand the types and distribution of benthic invertebrates, their vulnerability to bottom fishing, and the effectiveness of the HIMI Marine Protected Area (MPA) for representing and protecting the regions benthic biodiversity. A total 504 taxa from 14 phyla were collected from 129 stations throughout HIMI. Two methods, beam trawl (for non-complex flat terrains) and epibenthic sled (for more complex, rough terrains), were used to sample the megabenthos. Both the trawl and sled were fitted with a 1 cm-2 mesh cod-end with a net opening (height x width) of 2.7 x 1.2 m for the beam trawl and 1.2 x 0.6 m for the epibenthic sled. Samples were sorted into broad taxonomic groups onboard the sampling vessel then frozen for later analysis. In the laboratory, samples were sieved over a 1 cm mesh and all dead material removed. Megabenthos were identified to the lowest possible taxonomic level by using the available literature and assistance of taxonomic specialists. All non-colonial taxa were counted and then weighed. Colonial taxa that could not be counted as individuals, e.g. demosponges and bryozoans, were separated to the lowest taxonomic level and a whole weight recorded per sample. Taxonomic expertise was provided by Dick Williams (Osteichthyes and Chondrichthyes) of the Australian Antarctic Division; Daphne Fautin and Andrea Crowther (Actinaria) of the University of Kansas; Cardin Wallace (Actinaria) from Queensland Museum; Elizabeth Turner (Bivalvia and Gastropoda) and Genefor Walker-Smith (Invertebrates) from the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery; Phillip Bock (Bryozoa), Mark Norman (Cephalopoda), Gary Poore (Crustacea), Joanne Taylor (Decapoda), Mark O'Loughlin (Holothuriodea), Jan Watson (Hydrozoa), Tim O'Hara (Ophiuroidea and Asteroidae), Robin Wilson (Polychaeta) and David Staples (Pycnogonida) of Museum Victoria; Igor Smirnov (Ophuroidea) of the University of Russia; and Andrew Hosie (Cirripedia) of the Western Australian Museum. A reference collection of the taxa is lodged at the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, Hobart, Tasmania. On 2022-11-02 a minor data update was made to add scanned copies of old worksheets.

Australian Bird and Bat Banding Scheme Bird Banding records from the Australian Antarctic Territory and Heard Island, a subset of banding and recovery records from within Australian Antarctic Territory and Heard Island. The Australian Government under the auspices of the Australian Bird and Bat Banding Scheme (ABBBS) manages the collation of information on threatened and migratory bird and bat species. The information provided spans from 1953 to the present, and contains over 2 million records. This set comprises records of banding and recovery in the Australian Antarctic territory. Records are also included if the bird was recovered or banded outside this region. The ABBBS site is at http://www.environment.gov.au/science/bird-and-bat-banding.

This dataset contains presence-absence records of the demersal fish sampled during the 2006, 2010 and 2013 Random Stratified Trawl Surveys surrounding Heard and MacDonald Islands on the Kerguelen Plateau. It also contains spatially matched climatological variables from satellite and modelled data that represent sea floor and sea surface conditions likely to affect the distribution of demersal fish. KP_Fish_Env.csv: contains the data used in the bioregionalisation analyses KP_Fish_Field_Descriptions.xlxs: contains descriptions of field headers in KP_Fish_Env.csv and details about the matched environmental data.

Bathymetry around Heard and McDonald Islands and the Kerguelen Plateau. This layer is stored as two datasets (line and polygon) in the Geographical Information System (GIS). The line data were interpolated from soundings made on ANARE voyages and soundings provided by the Royal Australian Navy Hydrographic Service. The line data were polygonised to create the polygon data. The data were produced for a 1:1 million scale bathymetric map (refer to link).

A GPS survey of seabirds on Heard Island during the Australian Antarctic Program's 2000/01 expedition. This layer is stored as two datasets (polygon and point) in the Geographical Information System (GIS). Polygon data represent flying bird and penguin colony extents. Point data represent nest locations and the location of the observation point for flying birds and penguins.

This dataset contains environmental layers used to model the predicted distribution of demersal fish bioregions for the paper: Hill et al. (2020) Determining Marine Bioregions: A comparison of quantitative approaches, Methods in Ecology and Evolution. It contains climatological variables from satellite and modelled data that represent sea floor and sea surface conditions likely to affect the distribution of demersal fish including: depth, slope, seafloor temperatures, seafloor current, seafloor nitrate, sea surface temperature, chlorophyll-a standard deviation and sea surface height standard deviation. Layers are presented at 0.1 degree resolution. "prediction_space" is a Rda file for R that consists of two objects: env_raster: a raster stack of the environmental layers pred_sp: a data.frame version of the env_raster where some variables have been transformed for statistical analysis and bioregion prediction. "Env_data_sources.xlsx" contains a description of each environmental variable and it's source.