Marine mammal observations from the TAN1802 voyage to the Ross Sea, Antarctica

OBIS and SWP OBIS

RV Tangaroa carried out a six-week voyage to Antarctica and the Southern Ocean between 9 February and 21 March 2018 with scientists from NIWA and the University of Auckland.
Scientists did a range of surveys to better understand the processes governing this environment and its relevance to New Zealand. These included oceanographic observations, atmospheric observations, whale and benthic habitat studies, along with studies of plankton communities. The whale studies were carried out by the University of Auckland.
The research aims of the voyage were to better understand:

* Climate change effects on oceanographic processes;
* Marine microbial community structure and function ;
* Influence of marine aerosols on cloud formation and properties of Antarctic clouds;
* Seabed habitats and fauna inside and outside of the Ross Sea Marine Protected Area (MPA);
* The role of whales in the Antarctic ecosystem;
* Abundance and distribution of mesopelagic fish found between 200 and 100m deep, krill, and zooplankton
One of the key outcomes of the research will be to generate baseline data required to determine whether the objectives of the MPA are being achieved. The MPA covers more than 1.55 million square kilometres and came into existence in December.
he ship carried 23 scientists and 17 crew. Together their work ranged from taking atmospheric and oceanographic observations and samples, to whale spotting, maintaining the vessel, and cooking meals around the clock to service the 24-hour operation of the ship.

N/A

This dataset was downloaded from OBIS (https://obis.org/). The records for only marine mammals, seabirds, sea turtles and rays and sharks were extracted. Records with no longitude/latitude or no date (eventDate) were excluded.
OBIS dataset page:
https://obis.org/dataset/b976134b-70af-4608-ae99-9ad599e284c6
Data Provider's dataset page:
https://nzobisipt.niwa.co.nz/resource?r=tan1802marinemammalsightings

Overview

This section explains attributes included in the original dataset. OBIS-SEAMAP restricts the attributes available to the public to date/time, lat/lon and species names/counts only. Should you need other attributes described here, you are encouraged to contact the data provider.

Attributes described below represent those in the original dataset provided by the provider.
All attributes are included in the downloadable file (CSV or ESRI File Geodatabase) for "Complete Set of Dataset".

Attributes in dataset

Attribute (table column)	Description
oid	Internal ID
id	Record ID
dataset_id	Dataset ID
scientificname	Scientific name
vernacularname	Vernacular name
aphiaid	Aphia ID
taxonrank	taxononic rank
individualcount	Group size / individual count
eventdate	Event date (precision varies)
eventtime	Event time
decimallatitude	Latitude in decimal degrees
decimallongitude	Longitude in decimal degrees
coordinateprecision	Coordinate precision
catalognumber	Catalog number
collectioncode	Collection code
occurrencestatus	Occurrence status
basisofrecord	Basis of record (HumanObservation / MachineObservation)
modified	Date/time the record was modified
node_id	Node ID
occurrenceid	Occurrence ID
occurrenceremarks	Occurrence remarks
eventid	Event ID
institutioncode	Institution code
lifestage	Life stage
sex	Gender of the animal if known
species	Species by provider
datasetid	Dataset ID by provider
country	Country
locality	Location of ocean
waterbody	Details of ocean
dropped	Flag indicating the record was dropped (always false)
absence	Flag indicating the record represents the absence of the species (always false)
marine	Flag indicating the record is for marine life (always true)