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Passive acoustic monitoring of Antarctic marine mammals

Entry ID: ASAC_2683

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Summary

Abstract: Metadata record for data from ASAC Project 2683

Public
This project will initiate focused acoustic research into the biology of Southern Ocean cetaceans. Deployment of sonobuoys along vessel transects will be used to survey large geographic regions for the presence and relative abundance of cetaceans. In addition, bottom mounted acoustic recording devices will permit continuous acoustic ... monitoring of targeted locations over long time frames. These techniques will help answer important questions regarding the presence, relative abundance, seasonality, movements, and distribution of Southern Ocean marine mammals that are necessary for effective management.

Project objectives:
This multi-year initiative within the AMLR program aims to implement a focused acoustic research program that will examine Southern Ocean marine mammal population dynamics through the use of technologically advanced acoustic monitoring techniques. In order to achieve the aims of this study an international collaboration has been developed leading to a multi-faceted research program. Long-term autonomous sea-floor recording devices will be utilised to conduct year-round acoustic surveys in targeted locations. Sonobuoys will additionally be used over shorter time frames to conduct strategic vessel-based acoustic surveys over large geographic ranges. These data will be used to assess distribution, movement, relative abundance, seasonality, and behaviour of cetaceans in Southern Ocean waters. These results can then be integrated with concurrently collected data on oceanographic and biological variables from vessel based surveys and remote satellite sensing leading to a larger understanding of the role of marine mammals in the Southern Ocean ecosystem.

These objectives and early research design of this project are largely responsive to needs determined by the Australian Antarctic Division's recently inherited responsibilities to the International Whaling Commission. The prevailing motivation behind this project is to help develop a significant acoustic research capability in cetacean biology in order to provide sound scientific data that will assist in Australia's participation in the International Whaling Commission.

Data from this project are stored on an external hard disk drive held at the Australian Antarctic Data Centre.

Taken from the 2008-2009 Progress Report:
Progress against objectives:
Analysis of the Brokewest sonobuoy survey is complete and the manuscript has been accepted for publication in Deep Sea Research. This manuscript details the distribution of whales and seals in eastern Antarctic waters based on an acoustic sonobuoy survey. Data analysis is continuing of the recovered acoustic logger data. In addition, 1 acoustic logger was recovered during the 2008/9 season that will provide 2 years of acoustic recordings from the waters between Tasmania and the Antarctic. Unfortunately, 2 other loggers deployed last year were unable to be recovered and appear to be lost. Finally, 2 years of low frequency hydro-acoustic data from the northern Indian ocean (Diego Garcia) has been obtained from the CTBTO. This will permit comparisons with the Southern Ocean data to assess differences in seasonality and presence of calling whales

Taken from the 2009-2010 Progress Report:
Progress against objectives:
In the last year, we have made significant progress on three fronts. First, we conducted a sonobuoy survey as part of the Antarctic Whale Expedition (AWE) which took place in February-March 2010. One hundred eleven sonobuoys were deployed across the study area (south of 60 degrees latitude, and between 150W and 150E longitude). Blue, fin, minke, humpback, sperm, killer, and unidentified beaked whales were all recorded. Two significant findings include linking the minke whale to a song-like vocalization that may be used to acoustically monitor these populations, and recording humpback whale song on the Southern Ocean feeding grounds for the first time. In addition, a long-term acoustic logger was deployed on the seafloor off Casey station for recovery in the 2010/2011 season, and a long term recorder deployed off the Kerguelen Plateau in collaboration with the French was recovered and is currently in transit back to Australia. And finally, we've begun redesigning the acoustic logger moorings for more efficient future deployments.

Related URL

Link: GET DATA

Description: Access details about the acoustic data

Geographic Coverage

(Click for Interactive Map)

Spatial coordinates

	N: -50.0	S: -70.0	E: 160.0	W: 60.0

Min Depth: 2 M Max Depth: 3000 M

Temporal Coverage

Start Date: 2005-10-01

Stop Date: 2010-03-31

Location Keywords

OCEAN > SOUTHERN OCEAN

CONTINENT > ANTARCTICA

GEOGRAPHIC REGION > POLAR

Science Keywords

BIOLOGICAL CLASSIFICATION > ANIMALS/VERTEBRATES > MAMMALS

ISO Topic Category

BIOTA

OCEANS

Platform

SHIPS

Instrument

SONOBUOYS

ACOUSTIC RECEIVERS

Quality The Dates provided in temporal coverage are approximate only, and represent the beginning and end of the 2005 - 2010 Antarctic seasons.

The latitudes and longitudes provided in spatial coverage are approximate only.

The following information relates specifically to the Tangaroa.Sonobuoy.Log.xls file:

National Instruments Card Gain is the amount of gain the ...

Access Constraints The data are currently not publicly available.

These data are also very large in size, and as such are not stored online, but on an external hard drive held at the Australian Antarctic Data Centre.

Use Constraints 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 the URL below when using these data.

Ancillary Keywords

acoustics

marine mammals

monitoring

Data Set Progress

IN WORK

Data Center

Australian Antarctic Data Centre, Australia

Data Center URL: http://data.aad.gov.au

Data Center Personnel
Name: DATA OFFICER AADC Phone: +61 3 6232 3244 Fax: +61 3 6232 3351 Email: metadata at aad.gov.au Contact Address: Australian Antarctic Division 203 Channel Highway City: Kingston Province or State: Tasmania Postal Code: 7050 Country: Australia

Distribution

Distribution Media: HDD

Distribution Size: 1 TB

Distribution Format: dat, wav, excel

Fees: Free

Personnel

JASON GEDAMKE

Role: INVESTIGATOR

Role: TECHNICAL CONTACT

Phone: +61 3 6232 3153

Fax: +61 3 6232 3449

Email: jason.gedamke at aad.gov.au

Contact Address:

Australian Antarctic Division

203 Channel Highway

City: Kingston

Province or State: Tasmania

Postal Code: 7050

Country: Australia

DAVE CONNELL

Role: DIF AUTHOR

Phone: +61 3 6232 3244

Fax: +61 3 6232 3351

Email: dave.connell at aad.gov.au

Contact Address:

Australian Antarctic Division

203 Channel Highway

City: Kingston

Province or State: Tasmania

Postal Code: 7050

Country: Australia

Publications/References

Boyd, I., Brownell, B., Cato, D., Clark, C., Costa, D., Evans, P., Gedamke, J., Gentry, R., Gisiner, R., Gordon, J., Jepson, P., Miller, P., Rendell, L., Tasker, M., Tyack, P., Vos, E., Whitehead, H., Wartzok, D., Zimmer, W. (2008), Marine Board Position Paper 13: The effects of anthropogenic sound on marine mammals, A draft research strategy Marine Board - European Science Foundation, Strasbourg, 96

Creation and Review Dates

DIF Creation Date: 2006-07-27

Last DIF Revision Date: 2011-02-14

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