2016 Aerial survey data of southern right whales (Eubalaena australis) off southern Australia

These aerial survey data of southern right whales (Eubalaena australis) off southern Australia were collected in August 2016. Such annual flights in winter/spring between Cape Leeuwin (Western Australia) and Ceduna (South Australia) have now been conducted over a 23-year period 1993-2016. These surveys have provided evidence of a population trend of around 6% per year, and a current (at 2014) population size of approximately 2300 of what has been regarded as the 'western' Australian right whale subpopulation. With estimated population size in the low thousands, it is presumed to be still well below carrying capacity. No trend information is available for the 'eastern' subpopulation of animals occurring around the remainder of the southern Australian Coast, to at least as far as Sydney, New South Wales and the populations size is relatively small, probably in the low hundreds. A lower than expected 'western' count in 2015 gives weak evidence that the growth rate may be starting to show signs of slowing, though an exponential increase remains the best description of the data. If the low 2015 count is anomalous, future counts may be expected to show an exponential increase, but if it is not, modelling growth as other than simple exponential may be useful to explore in future.
Quality
Photo quality will be variable and requires assessment prior to assimilation into photo-identification catalogue
http://data.marinemammals.gov.au/arwpic

2018-10-16
The original files from project 'NESP_2016_SRW' was reformatted to fit OBIS/GBFI/IPT Biodiversity.AQ standards, and a new datasheet \"NESTWhaleAerialSurvey2016.csv\" was created. The new dataset contains datasetID, occurrenceID, recordNumber, eventDate, year, month, verbatimLatitude, verbatimLongitude, decimalLatitude, decimalLongitude, locationID, stateProvince, country, countryCode, institutionCode, lifeStage, organismQuantity, organismQuantityType, sex, basisOfRecord, occurrenceStatus, and type. The lowest taxonomical rank of the species identified that could be determined is provided, after matched in WoRMS (World Register of Marine Species).

这些采集于2016年8月的澳大利亚南部海域南露脊鲸（Eubalaena australis）航空调查数据，相关年度冬春航线覆盖卢因角（西澳大利亚州）与塞杜纳（南澳大利亚州）之间的海域，目前该观测项目已持续1993至2016年共计23年。本次调查证实，被归类为澳大利亚西部露脊鲸亚群的种群每年约以6%的速率增长，截至2014年其种群规模约为2300头。该种群估计规模仅数千头，推测仍远低于环境容纳量。

对于分布于澳大利亚南部沿海其余区域（至少远及新南威尔士州悉尼周边）的东部露脊鲸亚群，目前暂无种群趋势相关数据，其种群规模相对较小，约为数百头。2015年西部亚群的观测数量低于预期，仅能提供微弱证据表明其增长速率可能开始放缓，但指数增长仍是当前对现有数据的最佳拟合描述。若2015年的低观测值属于异常值，则未来的观测结果有望延续指数增长趋势；若并非异常值，则采用非简单指数模型进行增长模拟，或将为后续研究提供有益参考。

数据质量
航空照片的质量存在差异，在将其纳入照片识别目录（photo-identification catalogue）前，需先完成质量评估。
数据来源：http://data.marinemammals.gov.au/arwpic

2018年10月16日
项目"NESP_2016_SRW"的原始文件已进行格式重构，以符合OBIS/GBFI/IPT Biodiversity.AQ标准，并新建了数据表"NESTWhaleAerialSurvey2016.csv"。新数据集包含以下字段：datasetID、occurrenceID、recordNumber、eventDate、year、month、verbatimLatitude、verbatimLongitude、decimalLatitude、decimalLongitude、locationID、stateProvince、country、countryCode、institutionCode、lifeStage、organismQuantity、organismQuantityType、sex、basisOfRecord、occurrenceStatus、type。在与世界海洋物种登记册（World Register of Marine Species, WoRMS）完成匹配后，数据集将纳入可确定的物种最低分类阶元信息。