Satellite derived tracks of humpback whales tagged on their Antarctic feeding grounds. Data can be found here: https://data.aad.gov.au/aadc/argos/display_campaign.cfm?campaign_id=83 Satellite tags were deployed on adult humpback whales with a modified version of the Air Rocket Transmitter System (ARTS, Restech) and a purpose-designed projectile carrier at a pressure of 7.5 – 10 bar. A custom-designed, 80mm anchor section is attached to a stainless steel cylindrical housing containing a location-only transmitter (SPOT-5 by Wildlife Computers, Redmond, Washington, USA and Kiwisat 202 Cricket by Sirtrack, Havelock North, New Zealand). This superseded anchor design resulted in the anchor section disarticulating upon deployment in order to achieve improved tag retention times while minimising impact. The tags were sterilised with ethylene oxide prior to deployment and implanted up to 290mm into the skin, blubber, interfacial layers and outer muscle mass of the whale. Tags were programmed to transmit to the Argos satellite system at various duty cycles and repetition rates for a maximum of 720 transmissions per day. These transmissions are relayed to processing centres which calculate the transmitter’s location by measuring the Doppler Effect on transmission frequency.

Satellite tracks of humpback whales tagged off the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, Australia and tracked to Antarctic feeding grounds. Data can be found here: https://data.aad.gov.au/aadc/argos/display_campaign.cfm?campaign_id=87 Satellite tags were deployed on adult humpback whales with a modified version of the Air Rocket Transmitter System (ARTS, Restech) and a purpose-designed projectile carrier at a pressure of 7.5 – 10 bar. A custom-designed, 80mm anchor section is attached to a stainless steel cylindrical housing containing a location-only transmitter (SPOT-5 by Wildlife Computers, Redmond, Washington, USA and Kiwisat 202 Cricket by Sirtrack, Havelock North, New Zealand). This superseded anchor design resulted in the anchor section disarticulating upon deployment in order to achieve improved tag retention times while minimising impact. The tags were sterilised with ethylene oxide prior to deployment and implanted up to 290mm into the skin, blubber, interfacial layers and outer muscle mass of the whale. Tags were programmed to transmit to the Argos satellite system at various duty cycles and repetition rates for a maximum of 720 transmissions per day. These transmissions are relayed to processing centres which calculate the transmitter’s location by measuring the Doppler Effect on transmission frequency.

This csv details the raw Argos locations generated from satellite tags attached to pygmy blue whales in order to describe their migratory movements through Australian waters as described in: Double MC, Andrews-Goff V, Jenner KCS, Jenner M-N, Laverick SM, et al. (2014) Migratory Movements of Pygmy Blue Whales (Balaenoptera musculus brevicauda) between Australia and Indonesia as Revealed by Satellite Telemetry. PLoS ONE 9(4): e93578. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0093578 This csv includes the following data fields - ptt: the unique Argos identifier assigned to each satellite tag gmt: the date and time in gmt with the format 'yyyy-mm-dd hh:mm:ss' class: the Argos assigned location class (see paper for details) latitude longitude deploydate: deployment date and time in gmt for each tag with the format 'yyyy-mm-dd hh:mm:ss' filt: the outcome of the sdafilter (see paper for details) - either "removed" (location removed by the filter), "not" (location not removed) or "end_location" (location at the end of the track where the algorithm could not be applied)

Tracking spring and summer migration of humpbacks from Eden NSW, Australia to Antarctica. Dataset can be found here: https://data.aad.gov.au/aadc/argos/display_campaign.cfm?campaign_id=70 Satellite tags were deployed on adult humpback whales with a modified version of the Air Rocket Transmitter System (ARTS, Restech) and a purpose-designed projectile carrier at a pressure of 7.5 – 10 bar. A custom-designed, 80mm anchor section is attached to a stainless steel cylindrical housing containing a location-only transmitter (SPOT-5 by Wildlife Computers, Redmond, Washington, USA and Kiwisat 202 Cricket by Sirtrack, Havelock North, New Zealand). This superseded anchor design resulted in the anchor section disarticulating upon deployment in order to achieve improved tag retention times while minimising impact. The tags were sterilised with ethylene oxide prior to deployment and implanted up to 290mm into the skin, blubber, interfacial layers and outer muscle mass of the whale. Tags were programmed to transmit to the Argos satellite system at various duty cycles and repetition rates for a maximum of 720 transmissions per day. These transmissions are relayed to processing centres which calculate the transmitter’s location by measuring the Doppler Effect on transmission frequency.

This file contains the deployment metadata for satellite tag deployments during the Antarctic blue whale voyage 2013. Specifically, this file contains: Argos Number – the platform transmitting terminal identification number assigned by Argos Date (UTC) Time (UTC) Location (at deployment) Field trip (field trip identifier) Deployment Lat itude Deployment Longitude Species Sex (as determined via biopsy sample analysis) Body condition Maturity Group Size Initial Activity Deployment Method (used to deploy satellite tag) Airgun Pressure (bar) Shot distance (m) %age Implanted (percentage of tag implanted – 100% = full implantation) Reaction (to tagging) Boat driver Tag Shooter Biopsy Shooter Filmed? Photo Id taken? Frame number (of photo ID image) Biopsy taken? Biopsy ID (sample identification number) A data update was provided in August, 2022. Three files were added: BDJ_Argos_locs_SDA_filter.csv (Antarctic blue whale tracking data - Argos locations with SDA filter outcome, state space model with move persistence/behavioural index) BDJ_ssm_2h_mpm.csv (State space model output at 2h time step with move persistence (gamma) value used to provide behavioural context to movement) Data package details.docx (provides further details about the above two files.

Sixteen satellite tags were deployed on adult southern right whales. Six of these tags were deployed on adult southern right whales at the Auckland Islands (AI), New Zealand (50.5˚S 166.3˚E) between 24 July and 2 August 2009 and one tag was deployed on a sub-adult at Pirates Bay (PB), Tasmania (43.2˚S 147.9˚E) in October 2010. Nine tags were deployed on adult southern right whales at Head of the Bight (HOB), South Australia (31.5˚S 131.1˚E) on 6 and 7 September 2015. However, tag performance was highly variable. Three of the six tags deployed at the AI ceased transmitting before the individuals moved out of the winter aggregation area. No transmissions were received from a fourth tag until 39 days after deployment at which point the whale was south of Western Australia and although the tag transmitted for 22 days, there was insufficient data to interpolate a track suitable to be included in analyses. Of the nine tags deployed at HOB, three tags failed to transmit, and three tags ceased transmitting within six days. Migratory movements from coastal calving grounds were successfully obtained for six individuals (AI=2, PB =1, HOB = 3) and detailed in the publication: Migratory movements of Southern right whales (Eubalaena australis) from Australia and New Zealand. This file includes the following data fields - PTT: the unique Argos identifier assigned to each satellite tag Datetime: the date and time in gmt with the format 'yyyy-mm-dd hh:mm:ss' Longitude Latitude Quality: the Argos assigned location class (see paper for details) Location: deployment location