Metadata details

AAS_2941_humpback_whale_satellite_tracks_AWE_2010

All scientific data collected by the Australian Antarctic program (AAp) are eventually described in the Catalogue of Australian Antarctic and Subantarctic Metadata (CAASM). CAASM can be used to search through AAp data descriptions, and it also provides links to access publicly available datasets, which can either be immediately downloaded or obtained from the Australian Antarctic Data Centre (AADC).

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Citation
Gales, N., Andrews-Goff, V. and Double, M. (2019) Satellite tracks of humpback whales generated from tag deployments during the Antarctic Whale Expedition (AWE) 2009/10, Ver. 1, Australian Antarctic Data Centre - doi:10.4225/15/5ae67dbd96e55, Accessed: 2026-07-22
Title
Satellite tracks of humpback whales generated from tag deployments during the Antarctic Whale Expedition (AWE) 2009/10
Data Centre
Australian Antarctic Data Centre, Australia
DOI
doi:10.4225/15/5ae67dbd96e55
Created Date
2018-04-30
Revision Date
2025-04-17
Parent record
ASAC_2941

Datasets and documents

    Related links

    Description

    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 This superseded anchor design resulted in the anchor section disarticulating upon deployment in order to achieve improved tag retention times while minimising impact.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.

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    Access

    These data are publicly available for download from the ARGOS database.

    An extract from the database has been made, and is also publicly available for download from the provided URL.

    Temporal Coverages

    Spatial Coverages

    Latitude

    Northernmost:
    -60
    Southernmost:
    -70

    Longitude

    Westernmost:
    -165
    Easternmost:
    130

    Science Keywords

    Additional Keywords

    • HUMPBACK WHALE
    • ANIMAL MOVEMENT
    • SATELLITE TAG
    • IWC SORP
    • ANTARCTIC WHALE EXPEDITION (AWE)

    Locations

    • GEOGRAPHIC REGION > POLAR
    • CONTINENT > ANTARCTICA
    • OCEAN > SOUTHERN OCEAN

    Platforms

    • R/V TANGAROA
    • SATELLITES

    Instruments

    • ARGOS Data Collection and Position Location System

    Researchers

    • gales, nick (INVESTIGATOR)
    • andrews-goff, virginia (INVESTIGATOR,TECHNICAL CONTACT,DIF AUTHOR)
    • double, mike (INVESTIGATOR)

    Use 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=AAS_2941_humpback_whale_satellite_tracks_AWE_2010 when using these data.

    Creative Commons License