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).
- 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
- Expected Date of Data Release
- 2019-06-06
- Data Version
- 1
- 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 This superseded anchor design resulted in the anchor section disarticulating upon deployment in order to achieve improved tag retention times while minimising impact.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.
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
- Start date: 2010-02-21 - Stop date: 2010-05-31
Spatial Coverages
Science Keywords
- EARTH SCIENCE > BIOLOGICAL CLASSIFICATION > ANIMALS/VERTEBRATES > MAMMALS > CETACEANS
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.
Project
ISO Topic
- OCEANS
- BIOTA
Dataset Language
- English
Orignating Centre
- Australian Antarctic Division
Dataset Progress
- COMPLETE
IDN Node
- AMD/AU
- CEOS
- AMD
Metadata Revision History
2018-04-30 - record created by Virginia Andrews-Goff. 2019-06-06 - record updated by Dave Connell to publicly release the data. 2024-04-10 - record updated by Dave Connell to add an extract of the data to the record. 2025-04-17 - record updated by Dave Connell - basic updates.
