Antarctica cetacean observations from the TAN1901 voyage to the Ross Sea

This dataset contains cetacean sighting data from the TAN1901 voyage by the RV Tangaroa. From 8 Jan - 17 Feb 2019 RV Tangaroa undertook a six-week research voyage to Antarctica and the Southern Ocean. On board 21 scientists, supported by 19 crew members, studied ocean, atmosphere and ecosystem processes with the focus on establishing monitoring programmes for the newly created Ross Sea Region Marine Protected Area (MPA). At over 1.55 million km2 in size, the MPA is the world’s largest and just a year old. It comprises a range of zones from fully protected to special research zones, as well as areas left open to fishing. The voyage had eight separate research objectives to better understand the processes governing the region and the role of the Marine Protected Area (established in December 2017) in protecting this environment. These included surveys of fish species and seabed habitats, ecosystem studies of plankton, oceanographic and atmospheric measurements to improve understanding of climate-related processes, and making observations of whales. All of this research will provide baseline information about the MPA so scientists can start to evaluate its effectiveness. There were international collaborations with American, Australian, and Korean research colleagues as well as the work of the onboard voyage participants from Italy, China, and France. The voyage was jointly funded by the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment through the Ross-RAMP programme, NIWA, and the University of Auckland.本数据集包含坦加罗阿号（RV Tangaroa）科考船TAN1901航次的鲸类目击数据。2019年1月8日至2月17日，坦加罗阿号科考船执行了为期六周的南极及南大洋科考航次。船上21名科学家在19名船员的协助下，开展海洋、大气与生态系统过程相关研究，核心目标是为新设立的罗斯海区域海洋保护区（Marine Protected Area, MPA）建立监测方案。该海洋保护区面积超过155万平方公里，是当前全球规模最大的海洋保护区，且仅设立一年。其涵盖多种功能分区，包括严格保护区、特殊研究区以及允许渔业活动的开放海域。本次航次共设定八项独立研究目标，旨在深入解析该区域的生态过程，以及2017年12月设立的该海洋保护区在环境保护中所扮演的角色。研究内容涵盖鱼类与海底生境调查、浮游生物生态系统研究、海洋与大气参数测量（以深化对气候相关过程的认知），以及鲸类观测。上述所有研究将为该海洋保护区提供基础基准数据，助力科学家评估其保护成效。本次航次与美国、澳大利亚、韩国的科研团队开展了国际合作，同时亦有来自意大利、中国、法国的航次参与者参与相关工作。本航次由新西兰商业、创新和就业部通过Ross-RAMP项目、新西兰国家水与大气研究所（NIWA）以及奥克兰大学联合资助。