Tracking summer migration of humpback whales from Sunshine Coast, Queensland to southern waters 2010/11

Satellite tracks of humpback whales tagged off the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, Australia and tracked to Antarctic feeding grounds. Data can be found here: https://data.aad.gov.au/aadc/argos/display_campaign.cfm?campaign_id=87Satellite tags were deployed on adult humpback whales with a modified version of the Air Rocket Transmitter System (ARTS, Restech) and a purpose-designed projectile carrier at a pressure of 7.5 – 10 bar. A custom-designed, 80mm anchor section is attached to a stainless steel cylindrical housing containing a location-only transmitter (SPOT-5 by Wildlife Computers, Redmond, Washington, USA and Kiwisat 202 Cricket by Sirtrack, Havelock North, New Zealand). This superseded anchor design resulted in the anchor section disarticulating upon deployment in order to achieve improved tag retention times while minimising impact. The tags were sterilised with ethylene oxide prior to deployment and implanted up to 290mm into the skin, blubber, interfacial layers and outer muscle mass of the whale. Tags were programmed to transmit to the Argos satellite system at various duty cycles and repetition rates for a maximum of 720 transmissions per day. These transmissions are relayed to processing centres which calculate the transmitter’s location by measuring the Doppler Effect on transmission frequency.

本数据集包含在澳大利亚昆士兰州阳光海岸海域标记的座头鲸的卫星追踪轨迹，追踪范围覆盖至南极觅食海域。数据集获取链接：https://data.aad.gov.au/aadc/argos/display_campaign.cfm?campaign_id=87

科研人员采用经改装的空气火箭发射系统（Air Rocket Transmitter System, ARTS, Restech）搭配专用抛射载体，以7.5~10巴的压力，将卫星标记装置部署于成年座头鲸身上。该标记装置的定制80毫米锚定段连接至不锈钢圆柱形外壳，外壳内置仅定位型发射器：分别为美国华盛顿州雷德蒙德市Wildlife Computers公司生产的SPOT-5，以及新西兰哈夫洛克北市Sirtrack公司生产的Kiwisat 202 Cricket。此迭代优化后的锚定设计可使锚定段在部署时自动脱开，在提升标记装置留存时长的同时，尽可能降低对鲸鱼的生理影响。标记装置在部署前经环氧乙烷灭菌处理，植入鲸鱼的皮肤、鲸脂、界面层及外层肌肉群中，植入深度可达290毫米。标记装置经编程后，可通过多种工作周期与重复速率向Argos卫星系统传输信号，单日最大传输次数为720次。这些传输信号会被中继至数据处理中心，中心通过测量传输频率的多普勒效应来计算发射器的位置。