IMOS Animal Acoustic Detections in Australian Waters (2007 - Ongoing)

Quality-controlled acoustic detections of tagged marine animals collected by the Integrated Marine Observing System's Animal Tracking Facility since 2007. The dataset includes observations from a permanent continental receiver array and independent research projects, covering fish, sharks, rays, reptiles, and mammals. Data is updated every six months and has been documented in a Scientific Data publication.

Use Cases

• Meta-analysis of broad-scale animal movements based on the continental acoustic receiver network.
• Relating species distribution shifts with environmental covariates as mentioned in the description.
• Studying habitat use and distributions for a range of aquatic species including fish, sharks, rays, reptiles, and mammals.
• Monitoring long-term trends in marine animal presence and movement in Australian coastal waters.

Strengths

• Data collection spans from 2007 to the present, providing a long-term time series.
• Quality control procedures are documented in a peer-reviewed publication (Hoenner et al. 2018).
• Data is updated on a six-monthly basis, suggesting ongoing maintenance.
• Spatial coverage includes continental-scale Australian waters from a collaborative network.

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 bias inherent to the Australian receiver network.

Provenance

Source

Integrated Marine Observing System (IMOS) Animal Tracking Facility, aggregated via the Australian Ocean Data Network.

Collection Method

Acoustic detections from a permanent array of receivers and receivers operated by independent projects, collated and quality-controlled via the IMOS Australian Animal Acoustic Telemetry Database.

Time Range

2007 - ongoing

Freshness

Updated every six months; last metadata update was 2026-07-13.

Geography

Australian coastal waters