Humpback Whale Data Inventory for Gippsland Offshore Renewable Energy Area

Fifteen priority species, including Humpback Whales, were identified for a rapid exploration of publicly-available occurrence data. This inventory describes data sources for Humpback Whales in relation to the Gippsland offshore renewable energy declaration area in Bass Strait. The project was conducted for the Australian Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water and the National Offshore Petroleum Safety and Environment Authority.

Use Cases

• Assess potential impacts of offshore wind development on whale populations based on occurrence data.
• Identify data gaps for environmental regulatory processes based on the project's evaluation of dataset utility.
• Plan marine spatial management for Bass Strait based on collated species occurrence information.
• Improve data accessibility for endangered species assessments based on the project's identified activities.

Strengths

• Focuses on 15 priority species identified by Australian government authorities.
• Specifically targets the Gippsland declaration area and adjacent Bass Strait for renewable energy planning.
• Evaluates dataset utility for official regulatory assessments required by DCCEEW and NOPSEMA.

Limitations

• Description metadata is limited; actual data quality requires manual inspection after download.
• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.

Provenance

Source

Australian Ocean Data Network

Collection Method

Rapid exploration involving identification, source tracing, and utility evaluation of publicly-available datasets.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-06-16 18:29:23.593440; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Gippsland offshore renewable energy declaration area and adjacent Bass Strait, Australia.