Metadata details

NESP_2018_SRW

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
Bannister, J. (2021) 2018 Aerial survey data of southern right whales (Eubalaena australis) off southern Australia, Ver. 1, Australian Antarctic Data Centre - doi:10.26179/h674-2891, Accessed: 2026-05-04
Title
2018 Aerial survey data of southern right whales (Eubalaena australis) off southern Australia
Data Centre
Australian Antarctic Data Centre, Australia
DOI
doi:10.26179/h674-2891
Created Date
2020-11-11
Revision Date
2022-10-28
Expected Date of Data Release
2021-03-09
Data Version
1
Parent record
None

Datasets and documents

    Related links

    Description

    These aerial survey data of southern right whales (Eubalaena australis) off southern Australia were collected in August 2018. Such annual flights in winter/spring between Cape Leeuwin (Western Australia) and Ceduna (South Australia) have now been conducted over a 26-year period 1993-2018. These surveys have provided evidence of a population trend of around 6% per year, and a current (at 2014) population size of approximately 2300 of what has been regarded as the 'western' Australian right whale subpopulation. With estimated population size in the low thousands, it is presumed to be still well below carrying capacity. No trend information is available for the 'eastern' subpopulation of animals occurring around the remainder of the southern Australian Coast, to at least as far as Sydney, New South Wales and the populations size is relatively small, probably in the low hundreds. A lower than expected 'western' count in 2015 gives weak evidence that the growth rate may be starting to show signs of slowing, though an exponential increase remains the best description of the data. If the low 2015 count is anomalous, future counts may be expected to show an exponential increase, but if it is not, modelling growth as other than simple exponential may be useful to explore in future.

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    Purpose

    Assessing the status and trend of Australia's southern right whale populations.

    Quality

    Photo quality will be variable and requires assessment prior to assimilation into photo-identification catalogue
    http://data.marinemammals.gov.au/arwpic

    Access

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

    Temporal Coverages

    Spatial Coverages

    Latitude

    Northernmost:
    -29.993
    Southernmost:
    -36.59789

    Longitude

    Westernmost:
    113.02734
    Easternmost:
    138.69141

    Science Keywords

    Additional Keywords

    • Southern Right Whales
    • Survey

    Locations

    • GEOGRAPHIC REGION > POLAR
    • CONTINENT > AUSTRALIA/NEW ZEALAND
    • OCEAN > SOUTHERN OCEAN

    Platforms

    • CESSNA 172 SKYHAWK

    Instruments

    • CAMERAS

    Researchers

    • bannister, john (INVESTIGATOR)
    • double, mike (TECHNICAL CONTACT,DIF AUTHOR)

    Use Constraints

    Please acknowledge John Bannister Western Australian Museum

    This data set conforms to the PICCCBY Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/).

    Please follow instructions listed in the citation reference provided at http://data.aad.gov.au/aadc/metadata/citation.cfm?entry_id=NESP_2018_SRW when using these data.

    Project

      ISO Topic

      • BIOTA
      • OCEANS

      Dataset Language

      • English

      Orignating Centre

      • Australian Antarctic Division

      Dataset Progress

      • COMPLETE

      IDN Node

      • AMD/AU
      • AMD
      • CEOS

      Publications

      • Bannister, JL, Hammond, PS and Double, MC (2017) Population trend in right whales off southern Australia 1993-2015., IWC Scientific Committee, SC/66b/BRG/09, Paper submitted for consideration by the IWC Scientific Committee.

      Metadata Revision History

        2020-11-11 - record created by Mike Double. 2021-03-09 - record updated by Dave Connell to publicly release the data. 2022-10-28 - record updated by Dave Connell - basic updates.

      Creative Commons License