Photo-identification records of individual southern right whales collected in southwestern Australia between 1991 and 2021. The project was conducted by the NESP Marine and Coastal Hub to provide evidence for updating Biologically Important Areas. Data outputs include matched whale images and a final project report with management recommendations.
Use Cases
- Tracking individual whale movements and site fidelity based on photo-identification matching.
- Identifying and classifying biologically important whale aggregation areas based on photographic evidence of calving.
- Informing marine park management plans based on updated evidence of whale habitat use.
- Studying population recovery trends of southern right whales in Australian coastal waters.
Strengths
- Data spans a 30-year period from 1991 to 2021, providing a long-term view.
- Project provides specific evidence for classifying two bays as nationally recognized Biologically Important Areas.
- Images are contributed to the established Australasian Right Whale Photo-Identification Catalogue (ARWPIC).
Limitations
- Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
- Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
- Description metadata is limited; actual data quality requires manual inspection after download.
Provenance
- Source
- NESP Marine and Coastal Hub, Australian Ocean Data Network
- Collection Method
- Collation and photo-identification matching of images collected from 2010 to 2020.
- Time Range
- 1991-2021
- Freshness
- Last updated 2026-06-04 23:04:48.816340; freshness should be verified.
- Geography
- Southwestern Australia, specifically Flinders Bay and Geographe Bay