ARWPIC: Southern Right Whale Sighting Summaries, 1990-2018

ARWPIC Right Whale sighting data summaries were compiled for the NESP MBH project A13 from the Australian Right Whale Photo Identification Catalogue. The dataset contains sight and resight summaries used to analyze population trends and spatial connectivity of individuals across southern Australia. Original sightings data were collected by ARWPIC partners between 1990 and 2018, and the catalogue is managed by the Australian Marine Mammal Centre at the Australian Antarctic Division.

Use Cases

• Modeling population trends based on mark-recapture analysis mentioned in the description.
• Analyzing spatial connectivity of individual whales across southern Australia using sighting locations.
• Establishing long-term demographic patterns from the 28-year sighting record.

Strengths

• Data spans a 28-year period from 1990 to 2018.
• Derived from the authoritative Australian Right Whale Photo Identification Catalogue (ARWPIC).
• Summaries were compiled for a specific national environmental science project (NESP MB A13).

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Data may reflect geographic or temporal bias inherent to the original sighting collection effort.

Provenance

Source

Australian Right Whale Photo Identification Catalogue (ARWPIC), managed by the Australian Marine Mammal Centre at the Australian Antarctic Division.

Collection Method

Summaries compiled from original sighting and resight data collected by ARWPIC partners.

Time Range

1990-2018

Freshness

Last updated 2026-06-05 01:03:56.221650; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Southern Australia