Visual observations recorded during the Antarctic blue whale voyage to the Southern Ocean 2013

Full description

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.

The logger access database contains all data collected throughout the Antarctic blue whale voyage related to:
Observer effort (effort status, event, number of observers and locations, ship guide and data logger)
Cetacean sightings and resightings (time, sighting number, sighting platform, estimate distance, binocular reticles, angle, species, sighting cue, heading, estimate of number of individuals, observer of sighting, behaviour, pod compaction, comments)
Sonobuoy deployments (time, sonobuoy number, notes)
Environmental observations (sightability, sea state, swell, weather, cloud cover, visibility, intensity, glare, ice, sea surface temperature)
GPS data (time indexed NMEA feed)
CTD deployments (time, notes)
Biopsy events (time, success, sample number, reaction, attempts, dart recovery, notes)

These observations detailing cetacean species observed and observer effort were collected during the Antarctic Blue Whale Voyage 2013. Please refer to the following references and webpage for detail on survey methodology and further detail on data collection:

Double, M.C., Miller, B.S., Kelly, N., Leaper, R., Andrews-Goff, V., Schmitt, N., Wadley, V. and Lindsay, M. 2013 Antarctic Blue Whale Voyage 2013: Science Plan. Australian Antarctic Division. Available from www.marinemammals.gov.au/sorp.

Double, M. C., Barlow, J., Miller, B. S., Olson, P. A., Andrews-Goff, V., Kelley, N., Peel, D., Leaper, R., Ensor, P., Calderan, S., Collins, K., Davidson, M., Deacon, C., Donnelly, D., Lindsay, M., Olavarria, C., Owen, K., Rekdahl, M., Schmitt, N., Wadley, V. and Gales, N. J. 2013. Cruise report on SORP 2013 Antarctic blue whale voyage. Paper SC/65a/SH21 presented to the IWC Scientific Committee, June 2013, Jeju, Republic of Korea.

http://www.marinemammals.gov.au/sorp/antarctic-blue-whale-project

The dataset is split into two access databases - each contains data in the following tables:

Lookup: Details codes (definitions) for behaviour, confidence, cue, effort status, event code, glare, gun type, ice cover, ice type, number of animals, observer, photo taken, observer platform, pod dynamics, reaction to biopsy or tagging, sea state, shooter, sightability, sighting cue, species, surface synchronicity, swell, visibility, weather

Biopsy: GPS index and time (UTC), success, sample number, reaction, attempts, dart recovery, comments

Comments: Time indexed comments detailing additional activity or observations

CTD: GPS index and time (UTC), CTD number, notes

Effort: effort status, event, number of observers, platform, observer identification, ship guide, data logger, comments

Environment: Sightability, sea state, swell, weather, cloud cover, visibility, intensity, glare, ice, ice type, notes, sea surface temperature (degrees Celsius) - SEE LOOKUP TABLE FOR CODE DEFINITIONS

GPSData: GPS locations with GPS time index (to link to the NMEA table)

Heading: GPS index and time (UTC), true heading

NMEA: the UTC time of each GPS index (which is linked to a GPS location in the GPS data table)
Resighting (resighting details per sighting): time (UTC), platform, distance, reticles, angle, species, sighting cue, animal heading (true), observer identification, resighting of (sighting number), notes, confidence
Sighting: index, GPS index (to link to GPS time and NMEA feed), GPS time (to link to GPS time and NMEA feed), sighting number, time (UTC), platform, distance (metres), angle (true), species, sighting cue, heading (true), number estimates (low, best, high), calves (count), observer identification, behaviour, pod compaction, satellite tag number, notes

Sonobuoy: event index, GPS index (to link to GPS time and NMEA feed), sonobuoy number, notes, date/time (UTC)

Lineage

Progress Code: completed

Notes

Purpose
Systematic sightings data including quantified effort, environmental co-variates that may affect detection probability and initial locations relative to the vessel of all sightings were collected whenever possible. These data have the potential to contribute to analyses of the following: (i) Distribution patterns and localised density of other baleen whale species (humpback, fin and minke whales) with respect to aggregations of blue whales and other co-variates such as distance from ice edge; (ii) Blue whales that were seen but not heard provide data on acoustic detection probability; (iii) Spatial scale and density of blue whales within aggregations including comparisons with acoustic data and average group size; and (iv) Comparisons of observed locations of fin and humpback whales with bearings of vocalisations heard on sonobuoys to enable better descriptions of the acoustic repertoire of these species in the Southern Ocean.