Pygmy Blue Whale Migration and Foraging in the South-east Indian Ocean, 2006-2021

North-western Australian waters feature data on pygmy blue whale distribution from 2006 to 2021. The dataset combines passive acoustic monitoring from 46 instruments and satellite telemetry from 22 tag deployments to map migration routes and foraging areas. It was published by the Australian Ocean Data Network and includes shapefiles and grids for spatial analysis.

Use Cases

• Mapping high-use foraging and migration areas based on satellite tracking and acoustic data overlap.
• Assessing spatial overlap between whale distribution and oil spill threat grids for impact assessment.
• Modeling seasonal whale density patterns based on month as a predictive variable mentioned in the description.
• Comparing identified important areas with existing Biologically Important Areas (BIAs) for validation.

Strengths

• Combines two long-term data sources: 46 passive acoustic instruments from 2006-2019 and 22 satellite tag deployments from 2009-2021.
• Quantifies specific behavioral metrics, such as foraging periods with a median duration of 28 hours.
• Provides spatial data in multiple formats (shapefiles, ESRI grids) for geographic analysis.

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 data_gov_au, focusing on Australian and Indonesian waters.

Provenance

Source

Australian Ocean Data Network

Collection Method

Passive acoustic monitoring and satellite telemetry.

Time Range

2006 to 2021

Freshness

Last updated 2026-07-13 13:41:38.247152; freshness should be verified.

Geography

South-east Indian Ocean, specifically north-western Australian coast and Indonesian waters.