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NESP MaC Project 2.7 - Aerial survey of the Southern Right Whale ‘western’ sub-population off southern Australia

Created 23/06/2025

Updated 23/06/2025

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This record provides an overview of the NESP Marine and Coastal Hub bridging study - "Aerial survey of the Southern Right Whale ‘western’ sub-population off southern Australia". For specific data outputs from this project, please see child records associated with this metadata. Aerial surveys of Southern Right Whales have been conducted across the southern Australian coast from Perth, WA to Ceduna, SA since 1993, as part of a long-term program to monitor their recovery. The surveys data provide a long-term population trend for this ‘western’ population, and provide an understanding of connectivity with the ‘eastern’ population as part of a national population assessment. The NESP Marine Biodiversity Hub funded the aerial surveys in 2015–2020 and the Marine and Coastal Hub funded the survey in 2021. (See Project 1.26: https://catalogue.aodn.org.au/geonetwork/srv/eng/catalog.search#/metadata/b85b2c7d-4631-477a-9217-2cae65f9cf0a) The 2022 survey ensures an uninterrupted time series in the long-term population trend data for this Endangered species. This is particularly important given the non-annual breeding cycle (typically every three years), such that annual surveys are essential to maintain an acceptable level of precision in estimating population trends and key life history parameters (calving intervals) to track the recovery of the species. Continued monitoring of the population is needed to evaluate whether there is a longer term and continuous change (in population size and calving intervals) in the population as indicated by recent sightings and population trend data. Outputs • Estimate of relative abundance and population trend compared to long-term aerial survey sightings [dataset] • Individual whale photo-identification data - 2021-22 season [imagery - published to ARWPIC] • Final technical report detailing overall numbers of southern right whales observed within the survey region, their gender (and life stage where possible) and spatial distribution of individuals [written]

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Additional Info

Field Value
Title NESP MaC Project 2.7 - Aerial survey of the Southern Right Whale ‘western’ sub-population off southern Australia
Language eng
Licence Not Specified
Landing Page https://data.gov.au/data/dataset/95706875-c84e-429f-b563-7fa9b7b58ff1
Contact Point
Australian Ocean Data Network
Joshua.Smith@murdoch.edu.au
Reference Period 01/06/2022 - 28/02/2023
Geospatial Coverage Australia
Data Portal Australian Oceans Data Network

Data Source

This dataset was originally found on Australian Oceans Data Network "NESP MaC Project 2.7 - Aerial survey of the Southern Right Whale ‘western’ sub-population off southern Australia". Please visit the source to access the original metadata of the dataset:
https://catalogue.aodn.org.au/geonetwork/srv/eng/csw/dataset/nesp-mac-project-2-7-aerial-survey-of-the-southern-right-whale-western-sub-population-off-south