An outline of the blue whale voyages of 2012 can be found here: http://www.marinemammals.gov.au/sorp/antarctic-blue-whale-project/bonney-upwelling-acoustic-testing-expeditions with further information here: http://www.marinemammals.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0005/135617/SC-64-SH11.pdf The 'Logger' data entry system was developed by the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) and is a flexible system to record information during a voyage. This system was the primary data entry system for the voyage and all events were recorded in Logger’s database. Blue whale voyage 1 datasets: 12 - 25 January 2012 Sightings from the first blue whale voyage are recorded across three access databases: 20120117LoggerFinalPart1Updated.mdb 20120121LoggerFinalPart2Updated.mdb 20120125LoggerFinalPart3Updated.mdb These databases contain tables describing: Comments: details additional to sightings entered or data entry omissions, time stamped (UTC) Observer effort - codes found in lookup table, date/time in UTC GPS data (time stamped, UTC) and heading Lookup - contains all topic codes to apply to all other tables Resights: resighting details for sightings already recorded, time/date in UTC, initial sighting number, blow count and notes Cetacean sightings - date/time in UTC, sighting number, observer name, vessel, estimate of distance, bearing, heading, species code, sighting cue code, estimate of number of individuals (low, best and high), group behaviour, pod compaction, surface synchronicity and comments Weather: Date/time in UTC, sightability, glare, sea state, wind strength, swell, weather, cloud cover, cloud height, notes Blue whale voyage 2 datasets: 13 - 30 March 2012 GPS data is stored in the file called 'gps_meld_data_exp.csv'. This is an amalgam dataset of two GPS data streams, that has been checked and corrected (see 'Quality' for further details. Date time is stored in two formats. The first is %Y-%m-%d %H-%M-%S format, as in "2012-03-16 17:54:32". The second format is a concatenated, orderable numeric string, as in 20120316175432. ### The small file 'trip_db.csv' contains a quick reference as to when the four trips of blue whale voyage 2 started, to the minute. These times have been corrected for the minor (i.e, 2 mins 15 second) error (see 'Quality' below). ### Effort database is contained in the file 'VWhale2_database_effort_corrected.csv'. A fair amount of 'correction' has gone on with this data as there were great variations in the way different people were adding new information into Logger. Furthermore, there were 'innovations' made to the Logger system, particularly after the first couple of trips. In particular, the effort was added to Logger in the first trip was exactly as it was in the first voyage (the VL was too seasick to make any amendments). So, according to the older effort classification, effort for the *first trip* started and ended, but there were no observer rotations or notes taken as to what platform the observers were perched on. Given there was quite a bit of seasickness that first day, the only observers likely to be working would have been PE, PO and DD. These observers favoured the Fly Bridge so all sighting effort for the first trip has been allocated to these observers on the Fly Bridge. The subsequent innovations were: observers were not told how far away a potential calling whale was. If, however, the acousticians thought that we were almost upon the animal(s), they will indicate this to the observing team. Acoustic.search == 1 indicates when the acousticians have notified observers that there was a group of blue whales in the area. Local.Search == 1 indicates that after an initial sighting was made, sighting effort and boat movement converted into a search to get closer to the animal(s) in order to confirm their species (not usually such a huge issue with blue whales, admittedly), group size and to get photo-ID. FD == 1 when effort on the foredeck either started or continued. FB == 1 when effort on the fly bridge either started or continued. For the effort types, the effort interval is defined as the time between the row the '1' value first appears and the date/time of the next row of the similar effort type. Index.new: Because two databases were merged to form the one effort dataset (the first trip had its own Logger MS-Access database), an overall index, Index.new, was created for continuity. Index: Effort index as it appears in the original Logger MS-Access databases. GpsIndex: In Logger, each Effort (or sighting) row is tagged with the accompanying GPS index number. This ties an effort event with the date/time and geographical location information displayed in the GPS data. GPSIndex.cor: As with GpsIndex but, again, as the databases were merged, a new GPSIndex value was created (.cor == corrected) to account for this, and for the added BPM GPS data. GpsTime: Date (only), as derived from GPS. Has been abbreviate to only date due to the joys of how Microsoft packages deal with date/time objects; full date/time value for each effort row can be derived from the GPS data, via the GPSIndex.cor value EffortNo: Each effort row has been assigned a unique number within each respective MS-Access Logger file. This is somewhat redundant with the Index value. Local time: When Logger records an event, it also takes a date/time value from the local computer. It's not really clear to me what this value actually represents. Observer: The head observer at the time the effort event was logged. Basically, just means the person driving the Logger computer (i.e., physically entering values and making weather obs) Event: Each event has a unique descriptor number. See the 'Lookup' table in the MS-Access database. Event.cor: This column should be completely ignored. Notes: Any comments that accompanied particular effort entries. See also the Comments table for notes not specifically related to any Effort entries. Platform: Which sighting platforms observers either started or stopped effort on, or rotated through. Unfortunately, this information wasn't always consistently recorded. See the FB and FD columns for a more correct record of when sighting effort was on and off. Platform.cor: This column should be ignored. Observers: All observers on rotation. Sonobuoy: when the launching of a sonobuoy was noted in Logger, here are the numbers (this is not a complete list) Trip: which trip it was ##### Sightings for all species are given in 'sightings.csv'. ##### Weather observations are in 'weather.csv'. Recording of glare angles (i.e., start and end bearing) started on third trip. ##### Comments in 'comments.csv'. Please note there were no comments recorded during the first trip.

This dataset contains acoustic recordings from Directional Frequency Analysis and Recording (DIFAR) sonobuoys that were deployed throughout the 2012 Blue Whale Voyages conducted off Portland, Victoria, Australia from January – March (in the Bonney Upwelling). During the 20 days at sea 131 AN/SSQ-53D sonobuoys were deployed yielding more than 500 hours of acoustic recordings. In January a total team of three dedicated acousticians monitored round-the-clock for blue whales and in all weather conditions. In March the team size was increased so that five acousticians monitored and tracked blue whales round-the-clock. The recording chain for all sonobuoy deployments through 25 March 2012 included a 3-dB communications antenna with a central frequency at 161 MHz and masthead amplifier connected to a passive four way splitter. The highest point of the antenna was approximately 14 m above sea level. The antenna, amplifier, and splitter were connected with low loss cable, and each output of the four way splitter connected to the DIFAR input of a WiNRaDiO 2902i sonobuoy VHF receiver. On 25 March the masthead amplifier failed and was removed from the recording chain. This failure prompted the use of recently acquired WiNRaDiO G39WSBe sonobuoy receivers. The A/D converter used throughout both voyages was a RME Fireface UFX. The voltage outputs of all of the sonobuoy receivers were calibrated as a function of modulation frequency before the voyage, and DIFAR outputs from each of the 2902i and G39WSBe were connected to an instrument input of the UFX. The instrument inputs of the UFX (analog inputs 9-12) have a peak-peak voltage range of 80 V with digitally controlled gain that can be set between 10-65 dB, and this setting was noted in the Sonobuoy Deployment Log (see below) in order to measure received sound-pressure levels accurately. The digitised signals from the UFX were saved as 16-bit WAV files with 48 kHz sample rate using passive acoustic monitoring software Pamguard. Directional calibration The magnetic compass in each sonobuoy was calibrated/validated upon deployment as described by Miller et al. (2015, 2016). Calibration procedure involved measuring the mean bearing error and standard deviation of errors between the GPS-derived bearing from the sonobuoy to the ship and the magnetic bearing to the ship noise detected by the sonobuoy. 15-30 bearings were used for each calibration as the ship steamed directly away from the deployment location. Intensity calibration Obtaining calibrated intensity measurements from sonobuoys not only requires knowledge of the sensitivity of the hydrophone, but also the calibration parameters of the radio transmitter and radio receiver. Throughout the voyage, a hydrophone sensitivity of -122 dB re 1 V/µPa was applied to recordings via the Hydrophone Array Manager in PAMGuard. This value is defined in the DIFAR specification as the reference intensity at 100 Hz that will generate a frequency deviation of 25 kHz (Maranda 2001), thus the specification combines the hydrophone sensitivity and transmitter calibration. In line with manufacturers specifications, the WiNRADiO G39 WSB and 2902i both had a measured voltage response of approximately 1 V-peak–peak (approximately -3 dB) at 25 kHz frequency deviation (Miller et al. 2014), and this can be subtracted from the hydrophone sensitivity to yield an total combined factor of 125 dB re 1 V/µPa. These calibration settings, along with the shaped filter response provided by Greene et al. (2004) make it possible to obtain calibrated pressure amplitude from the recorded WAV audio files. Sonobuoy deployment metadata (Sonobuoy deployment log) This spreadsheet contains metadata on the deployment of sonobuoys deployed during the 2013 Antarctic Blue Whale Voyage. The first row contains column headers, while each subsequent row contains deployment information for a single sonobuoy. Information contained in each column are: buoyID: Buoy ID number is the sequential number of the buoy starting at 1 for the first buoy of the trip. startDate: Date (UTC) at the start of the sonobuoy deployment (YYYY-MM-DD) startTime: Time (UTC) at the start of the sonobuoy deployment (HH:MM:SS) 2 digit hour with 24 hour clock and leading zero. stopDate: Date (UTC) at the end of the sonobuoy deployment (YYYY-MM-DD). While the recording is in progress this should be 1,2 4 or 8 hours after the startTime based on sonobuoy setting. stopTime: Time (UTC) at the end of the sonobuoy deployment (HH:MM:SS). While the recording is in progress this should be 1,2 4 or 8 hours after the startTime based on the sonobuoy setting. lat: Latitude of deployment in decimal degrees. Southern hemisphere latitudes should be negative. long: Longitude of deployment in decimal degrees. Western hemisphere longitudes should be negative. alt: Depth of the sonobuoy deployment in metres. For DIFAR sonobuoys either 30, 120 or 300. recordingChannel: This is the channel number within the recorded wav-file that contains audio from this buoy as would be reported by Matlab. Channel numbers start at 1 (1-indexed) so usually this will be 1, 2 or 3. magVariation: The magnetic variation in degrees. Positive declination is East, negative is West. At the start of a recording this will be entered from a chart. As the recording progresses, this should be updated by measuring the bearing to the vessel. sonobuoyType: The an/ssq designation for the sonobuoy. Usually 53B, 53D, 53F, HIDAR, 57A/B, or 36Q. receiver: The type and serial number of the calibrated radio receiver (WinRadio) used to receive the VHF signal. (wr15725, wr17274, wr15274, or wr15273) preamp: The (unitless) gain in dB of any preamplifier (including the instrument preamp from the Fireface UFX). Usually 10 or 20 dB. adc: The analog-to-digital converter (adc) used to digitize the audio. This is the sound card name and gain. All data were recorded on an RME Fireface UFX, so Ufx10 would be the RME Fireface UFX with a gain of 10 dB. vhfFreq: The VHF channel number used to receive the sonobuoys. Sonobuoys have 99 pre-set VHF channels between Real-time monitoring and analysis (Acoustic event log) During the 2012 Blue Whale Voyages Acousticians noted all whale calls and other acoustic events that were detected during real-time monitoring in a written Sonobuoy Event Log. Additionally, the acoustic tracking software, difarBSM, stored processed bearings from acoustic events and cross bearings in tab delimited text files. Each event was assigned a classification by the acoustician, and events for each classification were stored in separate text files. The first row in each file contains the column headers, and the content of each column is as follows: buoyID: Buoy ID number is the number of the sonobuoy on which this event was detected. This can be used as a foreign key to link to the sonobuoy deployment log. timeStamp_matlabDatenum: Date and time (UTC) at the start of the event represented as a Matlab datenum (i.e. number of days since Jan 0 0000). Latitude: Latitude of the sonobuoy deployment in decimal degrees. Southern hemisphere latitudes should be negative. Longitude: Longitude of sonobuoy deployment in decimal degrees. Western hemisphere longitudes should be negative. Altitude: Depth of the sonobuoy deployment in metres. For DIFAR sonobuoys either 30, 120 or 300. magneticVariation_degrees: The estimated magnetic variation of the sonobuoy in degrees at the time of the event. Positive declination is East, negative is West. At the start of a recording this will be entered from a chart. As the recording progresses, this should be updated by measuring the bearing to the vessel. bearing_degreesMagnetic: Magnetic bearing in degrees from the sonobuoy to the acoustic event. Magnetic bearings were selected by the acoustician by choosing a single point on the bearing-frequency surface (AKA DIFARGram) produced by the analysis software difarBSM. frequency_Hz: The frequency in Hz of the magnetic bearing that the acoustician selected from the bearing-frequency surface (DIFARGram). logDifarPower: The base 10 logarithm of the height of the point on the DIFARGram receiveLevel_dB: This column contains an estimate of the The RMS receive level (dB SPL re 1 micro Pa) of the event. Received levels were estimated by applying a correction for the shaped sonobuoy frequency response, the receiver’s frequency response, and were calculated over only the frequency band specified in each classification (see below). soundType: soundType is the classification assigned to the event by the acoustician. Aural and visual monitoring of audio and spectrograms from each sonobuoy was conducted for each sonobuoy deployment. Detections from marine mammals, and other sources and were detected and classified manually, and their time and frequency bounds were marked on the PAMGuard spectrogram. Parameters for monitoring and recording, were stored within the PAMGuard database and as stand-alone Pamguard Settings Files (PSF). During the voyage there were detections of pygmy blue whale song, and blue whale 'D-call' vocalisations. During the dedicated blue whale voyages the course of the ship was diverted to follow bearings to vocalising blue whales. Whale tracking log (Written Whale Acoustic Tracking Log - Tangaroa 2015.pdf) During the 2012 Blue Whale Voyages, noted all whale calls and other acoustic events that were detected during real-time monitoring in a Sonobuoy Event Log. A written summary of the event log was recorded during data collection at approximately 15 minute intervals, and this summary comprises the Whale Tracking Log. - Tracking Log. - Entries in the written Sonobuoy Tracking Log (on the bench in the acoustics workstation) also include total number of different whales heard in that 15 minute interval. - If multiple whales/groups were detected, then the acoustician on-duty, in consultation with the lead acoustician and/or voyage management designateded one of the whales the 'target' whale, and attempted to encounter this target first. - When targeting a whale/group, the acoustician on-duty continued to track all other whales/groups in the area as these tracked whales/groups may become the next target after obtaining concluding with the current target. Date: (UTC) written only at top of datasheet Time: (UTC) on the hour, 15 past, half past, and 15 to. Track: Unique identifier for each whale/group tracked in the past 15 minutes. Each track will have: Position: Either an average bearing from a sonobuoy (eg 220 degrees from SB18) or a Lat/Lon from the most recent triangulation Notes: What is the vessel action with respect to this tracked whale/group? (eg. Is this the current or previous 'target'? Are we presently photographing this whale? Did we finish photographing the whale?) Has the whale gone silent? Has this track crossed paths with another?

A spreadsheet detailing the filenames and sighting numbers (to link to visual observations) of the best left and/or right photos of blue whales photographed and individually identified during the blue whale voyages (2) in the Bonney Upwelling, 2012. The 'best' photos are also included as jpegs. See http://www.marinemammals.gov.au/sorp/antarctic-blue-whale-project/bonney-upwelling-acoustic-testing-expeditions and http://www.marinemammals.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0005/135617/SC-64-SH11.pdf for further detail regarding the blue whale voyages.