Antarctic Blue Whale Acoustic Tracking Logs from 2013 Voyage

Over 1,500 fifteen-minute intervals document real-time acoustic whale detections during a dedicated Antarctic voyage. The Australian Antarctic Data Centre compiled this log, where acousticians recorded whale call bearings, group counts, and vessel interactions. Data collection occurred during the 2013 Antarctic Blue Whale Voyage to the Southern Ocean.

Use Cases

• Analyze whale call frequency and group size from the 'total number of different whales heard' column per 15-minute interval.
• Model whale movement patterns using the 'Location' column containing bearings or lat/lon coordinates from triangulation.
• Study human-whale interaction protocols from the 'Notes' column detailing vessel actions like targeting and photographing.
• Reconstruct encounter sequences by analyzing the 'Track' identifier and 'target' whale designations over time.

Strengths

• Data recorded at consistent 15-minute intervals for systematic temporal coverage.
• Includes both bearing and geospatial location data for tracked whale groups.
• Logs contain behavioral annotations like vessel interactions and whale silence events.

Limitations

• Unknown total row count and sample size limits statistical analysis.
• Location data is a mix of bearings and coordinates, not uniformly geospatial.
• Data is from a single voyage in 2013, limiting temporal and spatial generalizability.

Provenance

Source

Australian Antarctic Data Centre (AU_AADC) via NASA Earthdata.

Collection Method

Real-time acoustic monitoring and manual logging by on-duty acousticians during a research voyage.

Time Range

2013 (specific voyage dates unknown).

Freshness

null

Geography

Southern Ocean, Antarctic region.