Biodiversity Data Journal : Data Paper (Biosciences)
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Data Paper (Biosciences)
Australia’s east coast humpback whales: Satellite tag-derived movements on breeding grounds, feeding grounds and along the northern and southern migration
expand article infoVirginia Andrews-Goff‡, Nick Gales§, Simon J Childerhouse|, Sarah M Laverick, Andrea M Polanowski‡, Michael C Double‡
‡ Australian Antarctic Division, Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water, Hobart, Australia
§ Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water, Hobart, Australia
| Environmental Law Initiative, Wellington, New Zealand
¶ Blue Planet Marine, Canberra, Australia
Corresponding author: Virginia Andrews-Goff (virginia.andrews-goff@aad.gov.au)
Academic editor: Ricardo Moratelli
Received: 25 Oct 2023 | Accepted: 06 Dec 2023 | Published: 11 Dec 2023
© 2023 Virginia Andrews-Goff, Nick Gales, Simon Childerhouse, Sarah Laverick, Andrea Polanowski, Michael Double
This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Citation: Andrews-Goff V, Gales N, Childerhouse SJ, Laverick SM, Polanowski AM, Double MC (2023) Australia’s east coast humpback whales: Satellite tag-derived movements on breeding grounds, feeding grounds and along the northern and southern migration. Biodiversity Data Journal 11: e114729. https://doi.org/10.3897/BDJ.11.e114729
 Open Access

Abstract

Background

Satellite tags were deployed on 50 east Australian humpback whales (breeding stock E1) between 2008 and 2010 on their southward migration, northward migration and feeding grounds in order to identify and describe migratory pathways, feeding grounds and possible calving areas. At the time, these movements were not well understood and calving grounds were not clearly identified. To the best of our knowledge, this dataset details all long-term, implantable tag deployments that have occurred to date on breeding stock E1. As such, these data provide researchers, regulators and industry with clear and valuable insights into the spatial and temporal nature of humpback whale movements along the eastern coastline of Australia and into the Southern Ocean. As this population of humpback whales navigates an increasingly complex habitat undergoing various development pressures and anthropogenic disturbances, in addition to climate-mediated changes in their marine environment, this dataset may also provide a valuable baseline.

New information

At the time these tracks were generated, these were the first satellite tag deployments intended to deliver long-term, detailed movement information on east Australian (breeding stock E1) humpback whales. The tracking data revealed previously unknown migratory pathways into the Southern Ocean, with 11 individuals tracked to their Antarctic feeding grounds. Once assumed to head directly south on their southern migration, five individuals initially travelled west towards New Zealand. Six tracks detailed the coastal movement of humpback whales migrating south. One tag transmitted a partial southern migration, then ceased transmissions only to begin transmitting eight months later as the animal was migrating north. Northern migration to breeding grounds was detailed for 13 individuals, with four tracks including turning points and partial southern migrations. Another 14 humpback whales were tagged in Antarctica, providing detailed Antarctic feeding ground movements.

Broadly speaking, the tracking data revealed a pattern of movement where whales were at their northern limit in July and their southern limit in March. Migration north was most rapid across the months of May and June, whilst migration south was most rapid between November and December. Tagged humpback whales were located on their Antarctic feeding grounds predominantly between January and May and approached their breeding grounds between July and August. Tracking distances ranged from 68 km to 8580 km and 1 to 286 days. To the best of our knowledge, this dataset compiles all of the long-term tag deployments that have occurred to date on breeding stock E1.

Keywords

satellite telemetry, breeding stock E1, conservation, management, foraging, Antarctica, baleen whale, Southern Ocean, Megaptera novaeangliae

Introduction

Humpback whales are globally distributed, occupying each of the ocean basins (Jackson et al. 2014). Like most rorqual whale species, humpback whales were targeted by the industrial whaling industry, with around 220,000 humpback whales killed in the Southern Hemisphere between 1904 and 1973 (Jackson et al. 2015). In order to manage humpback whale stocks, the International Whaling Commission assigned seven Southern Hemisphere breeding stocks (A-G) and six Southern Ocean feeding areas (Donovan 1991). The two breeding stocks (D and E1) that move along Australia’s west and east coasts annually were likely reduced to just hundreds of individuals each when industrial and illegal whaling ceased (Chittleborough 1965, Bannister and Hedley 2001). However, despite the devastation caused by whaling, Australia’s humpback whales have demonstrated a remarkable population recovery and, in 2022, the Australian Government removed their threatened species listing under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999. Australia’s eastern population of humpback whales was estimated to number 24,545 in 2015, with full recovery of the population expected to occur in 2016 (Noad et al. 2019). A contemporary population estimate for Australia’s western population of humpback whales is lacking. However, in 2008, the population was conservatively estimated to be 17,810 individuals (Hedley et al. 2011).

Humpback whales undertake the longest mammalian migration on the planet (Rasmussen et al. 2007), moving seasonally between their winter breeding/calving grounds located in tropical and subtropical waters to their high-latitude summer feeding grounds, with the exception of the resident Arabian Sea population (Mikhalev 1997). Whilst some of this migration occurs along populated coastline, which facilitates the spatial and temporal monitoring of movements (for example, Noad et al. 2019 and Pirotta et al. (2020)), the majority of movement is far removed from land (for example, Andrews-Goff et al. (2018), Bestley et al. (2019)). Satellite tags are the primary technology used to detail movement over biologically relevant time scales (Dingle 2014) and are especially essential to determine long-term, large-scale, detailed movements. Satellite tag-derived data are critical for identifying habitat use (Reisinger et al. 2021), overlap with threats (Weinstein et al. 2017) and novel behaviour (Garrigue et al. 2015) and is an essential tool for conservation and management of an animal that spends very little time at the surface (Nowacek et al. 2016) and in remote areas with no survey effort (Mate et al. 2007).

We present here a dataset detailing the satellite tag-derived movements of 50 humpback whales from Australia’s eastern breeding stock E1. To the best of our knowledge, this dataset compiles all of the long-term tag deployments (type C implantable satellite tags; Andrews et al. (2019)) that have occurred to date on breeding stock E1. The dataset details movements on coastal breeding grounds, along northern and southern migrations and on Antarctic feeding grounds. These tracks have been compiled in their raw form, with a basic speed distance angle filter applied and also as a state space model output that accounts for Argos location error. These data provide researchers, regulators and industry with clear and valuable insights into the spatial and temporal nature of humpback whale movements along the eastern coastline of Australia. Managing and protecting species that cross ocean basins and jurisdictions is a challenge (Asaro 2012, Geijer and Jones 2015, Miller et al. 2018). As humpback whales navigate an increasingly complex habitat undergoing various development pressures and anthropogenic disturbances (Bolin et al. 2020, Indeck et al. 2021, Mayaud et al. 2022), as well as a marine environment changing under a shifting climate regime (Tulloch et al. 2019, Pallin et al. 2023), this dataset may also provide valuable baseline data.

General description

Purpose: 

Satellite tags were deployed on humpback whales on their southward migration, northward migration and feeding grounds in 2008, 2009 and 2010 to describe migratory pathways and movements on Antarctic feeding grounds and to identify possible calving areas. At the time, these movements were not well understood and calving grounds were not clearly identified.

Additional information: 

This dataset revealed the following key results:

  • Supplemental feeding by breeding stock E1 humpback whales in temperate waters on their southern migration (Gales et al. 2009) despite the fact that humpback whales were generally assumed to only feed on their Antarctic feeding grounds;
  • A previously unknown migratory pathway departing the Australian coastline in an eastward direction towards the western coastline of New Zealand's South Island Te Waipounamu and then on to Antarctica (Gales et al. 2009);
  • Migration in a westerly direction across the Bass Strait to forage in IWC Management Area IV by one individual. Whilst breeding stock E1 humpback whales generally forage in IWC Management Area V, this whale travelled to IWC Management Area IV, mixing with the humpback whales that migrate south along the Western Australian coastline (breeding stock D; Gales et al. (2009));
  • The northern extent of the migratory pathway for breeding stock E1 humpback whales is located within the southern Great Barrier Reef (Gales et al. 2010). These tracking data supported designation of an important wintering area off Proserpine and Mackay (19.5°S to 21.5°S; Smith et al. (2012));
  • Proved that it was possible to attach satellite tags to humpback whales located in high latitude seas (Gales 2010). The Antarctic foraging habitat of these whales tagged in IWC Management Area V (where breeding stock E1 humpback whales aggregate, Constantine et al. (2014)) is associated with the marginal ice zone. Key predictors of inferred foraging behaviour include distance from the ice edge, ice melt rate and variability in ice concentration two months prior to arrival (Andrews-Goff et al. 2018).

Project description

Title: 

Satellite tag-derived movements of Australia’s eastern humpback whale population, breeding stock E1

Personnel: 

Nick Gales, Sarah Laverick, Mike Double, Simon Childerhouse, Dave Paton, Curt Jenner

Study area description: 

Satellite tags were deployed on whales in the following locations:

  • Eden, southern NSW (Australia), October 2008: whales were tagged off Eden during their southern migration.
  • Evans Head, northern NSW (Australia), June and July 2009: whales were tagged off Evans Head during their northern migration.
  • East Antarctica, February 2010: whales were tagged on their feeding grounds within IWC Management Area V.
  • Sunshine Coast, QLD (Australia), October 2010: whales were tagged off the Sunshine Coast during their southern migration.

The satellite-tagged humpback whales ranged widely from the tropical waters of the Great Barrier Reef (16°S) to the polar waters of Antarctica (70°S). The tracked whales moved through a region spanning a longitudinal range of 83° (between 101°E and 176°W). When on their Antarctic feeding grounds, whales moved through IWC Management Areas IV (70°E to 130°E; Donovan (1991)) and V (130°E to 170°W; Donovan (1991)) with the majority of movements concentrated in Area V. When migrating along the Australian coastline, movements were predominantly restricted to over the continental shelf and over sandy substrate.

The datasets described here are available in the Movebank Data Repository, https://doi.org/10.5441/001/1.294 (Andrews-Goff et al. 2023).

Funding: 

These satellite tag deployments were undertaken by the Australian Marine Mammal Centre funded by the Commonwealth Environment Research Fund (CERF) and then the Australian Government’s International Whale and Marine Mammal Conservation Initiative (IWMMCI), as well as the Australian Antarctic Division.

Sampling methods

Description: 

Satellite tags were deployed on humpback whales located off east Australia (2008, 2009, 2010) and in east Antarctica (2010). Locations were transmitted via the Argos satellite system and processed to account for erroneous locations and the spatial error associated with Argos locations.

Sampling description: 

Satellite tag deployment

Type C implantable satellite tags (Andrews et al. 2019) were deployed on humpback whales in good body condition using a modified version of the Air Rocket Transmitter System (ARTS), Restech (Heide-Jorgensen et al. 2001) and a purpose-designed projectile carrier at a pressure of 7–12 bar. Deployment details are given within the Data Resources package, with additional information capturing tracking duration, deployment location, behaviour and type of movement described in Table 1. The satellite tag employed was comprised of a stainless-steel cylindrical housing containing a location-only SPOT-5 transmitter manufactured by Wildlife Computers (Redmond, Washington, USA) or a Kiwisat 202 Cricket (Sirtrack, Havelock North, New Zealand) plus an anchor section (320 mm in length). The tag was designed to penetrate the skin and blubber with retention via a spring-loaded, articulated anchor and passively deployed petals. This articulated design is now superseded. Deployment of the tag using the ARTS was aided by a purpose-designed projectile carrier, often referred to as a ‘rocket’ or ‘sabot’. Retention teeth on the projectile carrier are gripped to a metal ring secured to the end of the tag. When the tag came into contact with the whale, the rapid deceleration of the tag and the projectile carrier withdrew the retention teeth, releasing the projectile carrier. The metal ring then fell off in time to reduce the drag of the tag. Satellite tags were sterilised with ethylene oxide prior to deployment and implanted up to a maximum of 290 mm into the skin, blubber, interfacial layers and outer muscle mass of the whale. Each tag was deployed from the bow-sprit of a purpose-built 6.3 m aluminium Naiad RHIB and was positioned high and forward on the body. Satellite tags transmitted data via the Argos satellite system once the tag was immersed in salt water, activating the salt water switch. Tags were programmed to transmit at various duty cycles to extend battery life and tag deployment duration. Tag transmissions were relayed to processing centres to calculate the transmitter’s location by measuring the Doppler Effect on transmission frequency. Transmitted data were processed using least squares analysis and each location was assigned an estimated error and one of seven associated location classes (LC; see CLS (2023)). Briefly, LC 3 has an estimated error of 250 m, LC 2 has an estimated error between 250 and 500 m and LC 1 has an estimated error between 500 and 1500 m. LC 0 has an open-ended error of 1500 m, whilst LC A and B have no accuracy estimation and LC Z is an invalid location. Tags ceased transmitting when they were either naturally shed, damaged, experienced sensor fouling or the battery was exhausted.

Upon tag deployment, a small amount of skin and blubber was simultaneously collected for genetic analyses. These were collected using a biopsy dart fired from a modified 0.22 Paxarms system (Krutzen et al. 2002). Biopsy samples were stored in 70% ethanol and DNA subsequently extracted using a Tissue DNA purification kit for the Maxwell 16 DNA extraction robot (Promega Corporation). The sexes of the tagged whales were determined using a 5′ exonuclease assay of the polymorphisms in the sex-linked Zinc Finger genes as described by Morin et al. (2005). This research was conducted using non-lethal methods that are designed to learn about whales without harming them. The research was approved by the Australian Antarctic Ethics Committee (under Australian Antarctic Science Project 2941) and complied with all relevant permits, including the Australian Government Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act Cetacean Permit (2007-0007).

Quality control: 

Argos data processing to remove erroneous locations and account for Argos location error

Using the raw Argos tracking dataset and for all tracks containing > 5 Argos locations, we accounted for the spatial error associated with Argos locations by fitting a correlated random walk state-space model to generate a location estimate at each observed location time (fit_ssm function in the aniMotum package; Jonsen et al. (2023)) within R (R Core Team 2023). Within this state-space model, we applied the sdafilter function, which is an algorithm based on swimming speed, distance between successive locations and turning angles (sdafilter function in the Argosfilter package; Freitas et al. (2008)) to remove unlikely position estimates (speed of 10 ms−1, spike angles of 15° and 25°, spike lengths of 2,500 m and 5,000 m). Individual tracks were split into track segments for processing where data gaps exceeded 24 hours.

Geographic coverage

Description: 

The geographic range of the bulk of the dataset is along the east coast of Australia and broadly through the east Antarctic sector of the Southern Ocean, concentrating in IWC Management Area V (Fig. 1). The tracking data captured various geographic ranges of movement, including southern migration along the east coast of Australia into the Southern Ocean (n = 10), southern migration towards New Zealand (n = 4) and southern migration via New Zealand into the Southern Ocean (n = 1). Six of the tags only transmitted coastal movement on the southern migration. Of these, one tag transmitted a partial southern migration to approximately 50°S, then ceased transmissions only to begin transmitting eight months later at approximately 37°S as the animal was migrating north. Northern migration to breeding grounds was also captured (n = 13), including turning points and partial southern migrations (n = 4). Movement restricted solely to Antarctic feeding grounds was captured by another 14 tracks. Tracking distances ranged from 68 km to 8,580 km (Table 1).

Table 1.
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Satellite tag-derived movements of breeding stock E1 humpback whales. Additional deployment information can be found in Data Resources. Argos PTT = the unique tag identification number; Tracking duration = duration of tag deployment from tag deployment date to last location date; Deploy location = broad geographic location where satellite tag was deployed; Stage of annual cycle upon deployment = migration direction or feeding grounds; Initial activity = whale behaviour at tagging; Retained for SSM = whether the state-space model was applied to the Argos locations generated to account for Argos location error; SSM-derived track distance esimate = the length of the satellite track from the state-space model location estimates in kilometres; Movement captured = the types of movement and behaviour detailed in each satellite track.

Argos PTT Tracking duration (days) Deploy location Stage of annual cycle upon deployment Initial Activity Retained for SSM SSM derived track distance estimate (km) Movement captured
96404 1 Antarctica On feeding grounds Slow travelling Yes 68 Antarctic feeding grounds
88752 1 Evans Head, Australia Migrating north Travelling No NA NA
53359 1 Sunshine Coast, Australia Migrating south Surface active No NA NA
53376 2 Antarctica On feeding grounds Feeding Yes 222 Antarctic feeding grounds
88744 3 Eden, Australia Migrating south Feeding Yes 110 Southern migration along the Australian east coast
53383 3 Antarctica On feeding grounds Logging Yes 244 Antarctic feeding grounds
96401 4 Antarctica On feeding grounds Surface active Yes 68 Antarctic feeding grounds
96395 5 Antarctica On feeding grounds Feeding Yes 219 Antarctic feeding grounds
88743 13 Eden, Australia Migrating south Feeding Yes 535 Southern migration along the Australian east coast
96385 13 Antarctica On feeding grounds Fast travelling Yes 383 Antarctic feeding grounds
88747 13 Evans Head, Australia Migrating north Travelling Yes 901 Northern migration to breeding grounds
64238 14 Sunshine Coast, Australia Migrating south Milling Yes 790 Southern migration along the Australian east coast
96412 15 Antarctica On feeding grounds Logging Yes 663 Antarctic feeding grounds
88736 15 Evans Head, Australia Migrating north Travelling Yes 1016 Northern migration to breeding grounds
88745 18 Eden, Australia Migrating south Feeding Yes 1306 Southern migration towards New Zealand
88746 20 Eden, Australia Migrating south Feeding Yes 1662 Southern migration towards New Zealand
88742 20 Evans Head, Australia Migrating north Milling Yes 1004 Northern migration to breeding grounds
96390 21 Antarctica On feeding grounds Surface active Yes 695 Antarctic feeding grounds
88737 21 Evans Head, Australia Migrating north Travelling Yes 1414 Northern migration to breeding grounds
96403 21 Antarctica On feeding grounds Slow travelling Yes 1680 Antarctic feeding grounds
88751 21 Evans Head, Australia Migrating north Travelling Yes 1334 Northern migration to breeding grounds
88734 26 Evans Head, Australia Migrating north Milling Yes 1376 Northern migration to breeding grounds
88756 26 Evans Head, Australia Migrating north Travelling Yes 1317 Northern migration to breeding grounds then partial southern migration
88750 26 Evans Head, Australia Migrating north Milling Yes 1245 Northern migration to breeding grounds
88753 27 Evans Head, Australia Migrating north Travelling Yes 1064 Northern migration to breeding grounds
88717 29 Eden, Australia Migrating south Milling Yes 1679 Southern migration towards New Zealand
53348 31 Antarctica On feeding grounds Feeding Yes 1107 Antarctic feeding grounds
88732 34 Eden, Australia Migrating south Feeding Yes 2275 Southern migration towards New Zealand
88748 34 Evans Head, Australia Migrating north Travelling Yes 2212 Northern migration to breeding grounds then partial southern migration
88735 38 Eden, Australia Migrating south Feeding Yes 1010 Southern migration along the Australian east coast
88755 39 Evans Head, Australia Migrating north Travelling Yes 1669 Northern migration to breeding grounds then partial southern migration
98138 40 Antarctica On feeding grounds Feeding Yes 1367 Antarctic feeding grounds
98139 40 Sunshine Coast, Australia Migrating south Travelling Yes 2709 Southern migration along the Australian east coast
88733 41 Eden, Australia Migrating south Feeding Yes 3883 Southern migration to Antarctic feeding grounds
88730 44 Evans Head, Australia Migrating north Travelling Yes 2313 Northern migration to breeding grounds
96398 46 Antarctica On feeding grounds Logging Yes 1816 Antarctic feeding grounds
64235 46 Sunshine Coast, Australia Migrating south Surface active, moving slowly Yes 4449 Southern migration to Antarctic feeding grounds
98114 56 Sunshine Coast, Australia Migrating south Travelling Yes 4600 Southern migration to Antarctic feeding grounds
88738 57 Eden, Australia Migrating south Travelling Yes 4099 Southern migration to Antarctic feeding grounds
88754 58 Evans Head, Australia Migrating north Travelling Yes 3117 Northern migration to breeding grounds then partial southern migration
98109 65 Antarctica On feeding grounds Slow travelling Yes 442 Antarctic feeding grounds
88725 80 Eden, Australia Migrating south Unknown Yes 4303 Southern migration to Antarctic feeding grounds
88723 81 Eden, Australia Migrating south Feeding Yes 5321 Southern migration to Antarctic feeding grounds
88718 91 Eden, Australia Migrating south Feeding Yes 5050 Southern migration to Antarctic feeding grounds
96386 92 Antarctica On feeding grounds Slow travelling Yes 3805 Antarctic feeding grounds
88728 92 Eden, Australia Migrating south Unknown Yes 5540 Southern migration to Antarctic feeding grounds
88729 98 Eden, Australia Migrating south Feeding Yes 6352 Southern migration to Antarctic feeding grounds
98129 104 Sunshine Coast, Australia Migrating south Unknown Yes 6636 Southern migration to Antarctic feeding grounds
88741 154 Eden, Australia Migrating south Travelling Yes 8580 Southern migration towards New Zealand and then onto Antarctic feeding grounds
98100 286 Sunshine Coast, Australia Migrating south Travelling Yes 7046 Partial southern migration then northern migration to breeding grounds following an 8 month gap in data transmission
Figure 1.  

State-space model location estimates for 48 east Australian (breeding stock E1) humpback whales. Two tracks contained < 5 Argos locations so were not included in the state-space model. The boundary between IWC Management Areas IV and V is depicted by the vertical black line at 130°E.

Coordinates: 

-70.0 and -15.7 Latitude; -175.2 and 101.1 Longitude.

Taxonomic coverage

Description: 

This dataset focuses exclusively on the humpback whale – Megaptera novaeangliae (Borowski, 1781) (Balaenopteridae, order Artiodactyla), which is categorised as Least Concern in the IUCN Red List (Cooke 2018). This dataset details the east Australian humpback whale breeding stock/population E1. The Australian Government categorises this population as vulnerable.

Taxa included:
Rank Scientific Name Common Name
species Megaptera novaeangliae Humpback whale

Temporal coverage

Data range: 
2008-10-24 - 2011-7-27.
Notes: 

Tags transmitted data over 1 to 286 days; however, not all tags transmitted continuously (Fig. 2).

Figure 2.  

Deployment duration (x axis) for each of the deployed satellite tags (unique Argos PTT on the y axis). Deployments span 2009, 2010 and 2011. Satellite tags transmitted locations continuously (for example, 88741) or sometimes intermittently (for example, 88755).

Tags transmitted locations for each month of the year with the exception of September (Table 2; Fig. 3). The temporal pattern of movement can be broadly described by assessing mean latitude against month, acknowledging that there is individual variability in the dominant direction of travel in each month. On average, tagged humpback whales were at their northern limit in July and their southern limit in March. Migration north was most rapid across the months of May and June, with mean latitude in May at 64.0°S and mean latitude in June at 27.1°S. Migration south was most rapid between November (mean latitude of 44.6°S) and December (mean latitude of 58.7°S). Tagged humpbacks were located on their Antarctic feeding grounds predominantly between January and May and approach their breeding grounds between July and August (noting that there are no location data for September).

Table 2.
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Monthly track summary detailing the number of tracks occurring in that month, the number of state space modelled location estimates generated by those tracks, the mean latitude of the location estimates and the dominant direction of travel.

Month

Number of locations

Individual tracks

Mean latitude

Dominant direction of travel

Jan

1873

7

63.9°S

6 x south, 1 x north

Feb

739

9

65.7°S

1 x south, 5 x resident, 3 x north

Mar

2476

12

66.2°S

1 x south, 1 x north, 10 x resident

Apr

737

5

64.4°S

3 x north, 2 x resident

May

356

1

64.0°S

1 x resident

Jun

265

13

27.1°S

13 x north

Jul

742

14

22.6°S

10 x north, 3 x north then south

Aug

119

3

27.6°S

1 x north then south, 2 x south

Sept

0

0

NA

NA

Oct

910

18

34.7°S

4 x resident, 12 x south

Nov

2881

19

44.6°S

3 x resident, 16 x south

Dec

2213

12

58.7°S

10 x south, 2 x data limited
Figure 3.  

State-space model location estimates generated by satellite tagged east Australian (breeding stock E1) humpback whales in each year and coloured according to month.

Usage licence

Usage licence: 
Other
IP rights notes: 

CC BY: This licence allows reusers to distribute, remix, adapt and build upon the material in any medium or format, so long as attribution is given to the creator. The licence allows for commercial use.

Data resources

Data package title: 
East Australian (breeding stock E1) humpback whale tracking data – satellite tag-derived Argos locations and associated information, reference data detailing tag deployments and state-space model location estimates that provide a dataset that accounts for erroneous locations and Argos location error. Datasets are freely available and are published in the Movebank data repository and the Australian Antarctic Data Centre.
Resource link: 
https://www.movebank.org/cms/webapp?gwt_fragment=page=studies,path=study3030068329
Number of data sets: 
2
Data set name: 
Movements of Australia's east coast humpback whales
Download URL: 
https://www.movebank.org/cms/webapp?gwt_fragment=page=studies,path=study3030068329
Data format: 
csv
Description: 

This file contains all Argos locations generated by satellite tags deployed on 50 humpback whales, as detailed in Table 1 and the reference data within Data Resources. Using the raw Argos tracking dataset, but only for tracks containing > 5 locations (n = 48), we accounted for the spatial error associated with Argos locations by fitting a correlated random walk state-space model to generate a location estimate at each observed location time. Within this state-space model, we applied the sdafilter to remove unlikely position estimates (speed of 10 ms−1, spike angles of 15° and 25°, spike lengths of 2500 m and 5000 m). The associated state-space model locations for 48 humpback whales are also contained within this file and are identified within the columns 'comments' ('state-space model location estimate – see citation for details') and 'modelled' ('TRUE').

Column label Column description
event-id An identifier for the set of values associated with each event. A unique event ID is assigned to every time-location record.
visible Determines whether an event is visible on the Movebank map.
timestamp The date and time corresponding to each location estimate. Format: yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss.SSS; units/time zone: UTC.
location-long The geographic longitude of the location as estimated by the sensor. Positive values are east of the Greenwich Meridian, negative values are west of it. Units: decimal degrees, WGS84 reference system.
location-lat The geographic latitude of the location as estimated by the sensor. Units: decimal degrees, WGS84 reference system.
algorithm-marked-outlier Identifies events marked as outliers using a user-selected filter algorithm in Movebank. Outliers have the value TRUE. Information about how outliers were defined provided in 'outlier comments' in the associated reference data.
argos:lat1 Argos' primary geographic latitude location estimate. Units: decimal degrees, WGS84 reference system.
argos:lat2 Argos' alternate geographic latitude location estimate. Units: decimal degrees, WGS84 reference system.
argos:lc The location class retrieved from Argos, Argos diagnostic data. Classes are based on the type of location (Argos Doppler Shift or GPS) and the number of messages received during the satellite pass. Location classes in order of decreasing accuracy are G (GPS), 3, 2, 1, 0, A, B and Z (definition from Argos User's Manual V1.6.6, 2016).
argos:location-algorithm The processing algorithm used by Argos to estimate locations using Doppler shift.
argos:lon1 Argos' primary geographic longitude location estimate. Positive values are east of the Greenwich Meridian, negative values are west of it. Units: decimal degrees, WGS84 reference system.
argos:lon2 Argos' alternative geographic longitude location estimate. Positive values are east of the Greenwich Meridian, negative values are west of it. Units: decimal degrees, WGS84 reference system.
comments Additional information - identifies state-space model locations.
modelled Identifies locations that are modelled (marked as TRUE).
sensor-type The type of sensor with which data were collected. Argos Doppler shift = The sensor location is estimated by Argos using Doppler shift.
individual-taxon-canonical-name The scientific name of the species on which the tag was deployed, as defined by the Integrated Taxonomic Information System (ITIS).
tag-local-identifier An identifier for the tag.
individual-local-identifier An individual identifier for the animal.
study-name The name of the study in Movebank.
Data set name: 
Movements of Australia's east coast humpback whales-reference-data
Download URL: 
https://www.movebank.org/cms/webapp?gwt_fragment=page=studies,path=study3030068329
Data format: 
csv
Description: 

Reference data detailing satellite tag deployments on Australia's east coast humpback whales (n = 50).

Column label Column description
tag-id A unique identifier for the deployment of a tag on animal.
animal-id An individual identifier for the animal.
animal-taxon The scientific name of the species on which the tag was deployed, as defined by the Integrated Taxonomic Information System (ITIS, www.itis.gov).
deploy-on-date The timestamp when the tag deployment started. Format: yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss.SSS units: UTC.
deploy-off-date The timestamp when the tag deployment ended. Format: yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss.SSS units: UTC.
animal-group-id The name or identifier for an associated group, in this case the breeding stock identity.
animal-life-stage The age class or life stage of the animal at the beginning of the deployment. Can be years or months of age or terms such as 'adult', 'subadult' and 'juvenile/calf'.
animal-sex The sex of the animal. Allowed values are m = male; f = female; u = unknown.
attachment-type The way a tag is attached to an animal; 'implant' = the tag is placed under the skin of the animal.
deploy-on-latitude The geographic latitude of the location where the animal was released. Units: decimal degrees, WGS84 reference system.
deploy-on-longitude The geographic longitude of the location where the animal was released. Units: decimal degrees, WGS84 reference system.
deployment-id A unique identifier for the deployment of a tag on animal.
duty-cycle Remarks associated with the duty cycle of a tag during the deployment, describing the times it is on/off and the frequency at which it transmits or records data.
manipulation-type The way in which the animal was manipulated during the deployment. None = The animal received no treatment other than tag attachment and related measurements and sampling.
outlier-comments A description or reference for methods used to define outliers in 'algorithm marked outlier'.
tag-manufacturer-name The company or person that produced the tag.
tag-model The model of the tag.
tag-readout-method The way the data are received from the tag. satellite = Data are transferred via satellite.

Acknowledgements

The data used in this paper were collected from four separate field trips coordinated by many and we are most grateful to all involved. For support in the field, we’d particularly like to acknowledge Dave Paton, Dave Donnelly, the Sapphire Coast Discovery Centre, the crew of ‘Cat Balou,’ Jean-Benoit Charrassin, Simon Childerhouse, Rochelle Constantine, Paul Ensor, Stephane Gauthier, Jason Gedamke, Curt Jenner, Catriona Johnson, Paul Sagar, Natalie Schmitt, Simon Jarman and all other vessel and science support crew. For their ongoing persistence and dedication to the difficult task of satellite tag development, we’d like to thank Eric King (sadly deceased), Curt Jenner and Micheline Jenner. The Antarctic Whale Expedition, which proved that satellite tags could be deployed on whales in the high seas of Antarctica, was the first voyage of the International Whaling Commission – Southern Ocean Research Partnership (IWC-SORP). IWC-SORP has supported the ongoing development of non-lethal research techniques in order to maximise conservation outcomes for Southern Ocean whales since 2009.

References

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