1. Australian Antarctic Data Centre
2. Discover and Manage Data
3. Records
4. AAS_4102_photoID2015

Description

A spreadsheet detailing the filenames of the best left and/or right photos of blue whales photographed and individually identified during the New Zealand Australia Antarctic Ecosystems Voyage 2015.

Photo-identification images of whales are collected using digital SLR cameras. Individual blue whales are identifiable from unique patterns of mottled pigment on both sides of the body, and also from variations in dorsal fin shape and any permanent scars that may be present. Blue whales will be photographed at an angle perpendicular to the whale, capturing the pigmentation in the area of the dorsal fin. Individual humpback whales are identifiable from photographs of the ventral flukes or the dorsal fin (perpendicular angle) if the whale does not fluke up.

See http://www.marinemammals.gov.au/sorp/antarctic-blue-whale-project for further detail regarding the Antarctic blue whale voyage.

Purpose

Individual blue whales are identifiable from unique patterns of mottled pigment on both sides of the body, and also from variations in dorsal fin shape and any permanent scars that may be present. Individual identification allows the production of sightings histories required for a mark-recapture approach to estimating abundance. These data will also provide information on blue whale population structure and movement. All photo ID images can be found here: http://dx.doi.org/doi:10.4225/15/59d43810ce55a

The IWC Southern Ocean Research Partnership has developed guidelines to enable the photo identification of blue whales. These guidelines can be found here: http://www.marinemammals.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0020/141482/Blue_photoID_guide_2014.3.pdf

Access

These data are publicly available for download from the provided URL.

Temporal Coverages

• Start date: 2015-01-29 - Stop date: 2015-03-11

Spatial Coverages

Science Keywords

• EARTH SCIENCE > BIOLOGICAL CLASSIFICATION > ANIMALS/VERTEBRATES > MAMMALS > CETACEANS
• EARTH SCIENCE > AGRICULTURE > ANIMAL SCIENCE > ANIMAL ECOLOGY AND BEHAVIOR
• EARTH SCIENCE > BIOSPHERE > ECOLOGICAL DYNAMICS > ECOSYSTEM FUNCTIONS > FOOD-WEB DYNAMICS
• EARTH SCIENCE > SPECTRAL/ENGINEERING > VISIBLE WAVELENGTHS > VISIBLE IMAGERY

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_4102_photoID2015 when using these data.