Satellite tracking of pygmy blue whales
Satellite tracking of pygmy blue whales
(Balaenoptera musculus brevicauda) off
Western Australia
Final Report – May 2012
M.C. Double1, K.C.S. Jenner2, M-N. Jenner2, I. Ball1, S. Laverick1, N. Gales1
1
Australian Marine Mammal Centre, Australian Antarctic Division, 203 Channel
Highway, Kingston, Tasmania 7150
2 Centre for Whale Research (Western Australia) Inc., PO Box 1622, Fremantle
WA 6959
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Satellite tracking of pygmy blue whales
Satellite tracking of pygmy blue whales (Balaenoptera musculus
brevicauda) off Western Australia
Summary
Summary
This study aimed to describe the migratory distribution and behaviour of pygmy blue whales
that feed in the Perth Canyon region off the coast of Western Australia. A total of twelve tags
were successfully deployed on blue whales between the 14th March and the 6th April although
four performed poorly with no uplinks, only Z class data or the tag ceased transmitting within a
few days of deployment. The 10 whales that provided some location data were tracked from 1 to
162 days (mean = 43.3 days; SD = 47.8) for a total of 20,621 km (mean = 2,291 km; max: 8,815)
and the total net distance moved from the first to last location was 9,606 km (mean = 1,067 km;
max: 3227 km). Following tagging several whales remained in the Perth Canyon/Naturaliste
Plateau for over a month whereas others migrated north immediately. On their migration north
the tagged whales were located offshore (usually between 40 and 100km) and showed distinct
changes from high (~100km/day) to lower (<50km/day) travel distances. The lower rates of
travel were seen in the Perth Canyon/Naturaliste Plateau, North West Cape/Ningaloo Reef and
the Banda/Molucca Sea regions. Three whales were tracked through to North West Cape and
each then took a similar bearing (approximately NE) to cross the Timor Sea as did a tracked
whale from a previous study. Two whales provided locations from the northern terminus of
their migration in the Banda and Molucca Seas. These observations confirm that the Banda and
Molucca Seas is the northern destination for this population of pygmy blue whales and is
therefore the likely calving area. These data also show that the greater Perth Canyon/Naturaliste
Plateau region of Western Australia is a region of high and often prolonged activity for these
whales.
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Satellite tracking of pygmy blue whales
Introduction
Satellite telemetry has been used routinely in wildlife biology for nearly two decades and has
been applied successfully in studies of many marine organisms including penguins, albatrosses,
seals and even sharks (Bonadonna et al., 2000; Gifford et al., 2007; Jouventin et al., 1994;
Weimerskirch et al., 1993). The use of this technology in understanding the migration of large
whales has, however, lagged behind other taxa largely due to the inability to catch and attach
tags to such large species. It is only relatively recently that research groups developed reliable
tags that can be implanted into free-ranging whales (e.g. Gales et al., 2009; Heide-Jørgensen et
al., 2001b; Mate et al., 2007). Such tags have now been used in studies of many large whales
species such as blue (Heide-Jørgensen et al., 2001b; Mate et al., 2007), humpback (Dalla Rosa et
al., 2008; Gales et al., 2009; Lagerquist et al., 2008), sei (Olsen et al., 2009), right (Baumgartner &
Mate, 2005), bowhead (Mate et al., 2000) and minke whales (Heide-Jørgensen et al., 2001a).
Satellite tracking studies of whales or other cetacea in Australian waters are few and therefore
their movement patterns and migratory routes are generally poorly described. In one of the first
studies, Gales et al. (2009) deployed 16 tags on humpback whales migrating south off New South
Wales and followed their migration paths around Tasmania and New Zealand and through to
Antarctic waters. In the same year five tags were attached to five long-finned pilot whales prior
to their release after stranding in north-western Tasmania (Gales, R. et al., in press). Although
these studies represent significant progress in the development of satellite tags for large whales
the technology and reliability of attachment remains somewhat erratic and poor tag
performance remains common for all research groups in this field (e.g. Gales et al., 2010; Gales et
al., 2009; Garrigue et al., 2010; Mate et al., 2007).
In April 2009 three tags were deployed on pygmy blue whales (Balaenoptera musculus
brevicauda) off the Perth Canyon, Western Australia (~32.0o S, 115.0oE). The longevity of these
tags ranged from 8 to 137 days and the these whales were tracked for 260 to 6,200 km (Gales et
al., 2010). The whale with the greatest tag life was tracked from the Perth Canyon north along
the western coast of Australia; it then passed through the Savu Sea and Wetar Basin and then
entered the Banda Sea east of the Indonesian island of Wetar. These data provided the first
definitive link between the blue whales that feed off the Perth Canyon (Bannister et al., 2006;
Jenner et al., 2008) and those that occur around Indonesia (Branch et al., 2007). This movement
is concordant with the proposed ‘Tasmania to Indonesia’ population described by Branch et al.
(2007).
The specific objective of this project was to deploy up to 30 satellite tags on pygmy blue whales
in the Perth Canyon near Rottenest Island, Western Australia in order to provide a greater
understanding of the movement and migratory behaviours of pygmy blue whales in Australian
waters and beyond. Pygmy blue whales occur predictably in the Perth Canyon and are known to
migrate north through this region in February to April however, their habitat use, feeding areas
and migratory routes have not been described in any detail (Gales et al., 2010; McCauley &
Jenner, 2010). Such information can be used to better assess and mitigate the potential impacts
of industrial development, shipping and resource extraction off Western Australia and is
therefore of great interest to industry, managers and regulators.
Methods
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Satellite tracking of pygmy blue whales
The satellite tags used in this study have a custom-designed, anchor section joined to a housing
manufactured by Wildlife Computers (Redmond, Washington, USA) containing the Spot 5
transmitter (see Gales et al., 2009). The tags were designed to implant up to a maximum of
290mm into the skin, blubber, interfacial layers and outer muscle mass of the whale (generally
just forward and to the left or right side of the dorsal fin). The front 80mm of the tag
disarticulates from back section of the tag post-deployment; a flexible 5mm multi-braided
stainless steel wire maintains a coupling between the two parts. Retention of the tag is
maintained through two actively sprung plates, and a circle of passively deployed ‘petals.’ All
external components of the tag were built from stainless steel and the tags were surgically
sterilised prior to deployment.
Each tag was deployed using a compressed air gun (modified ARTS, Restech) set at a pressure of
between 7.5 and 10 bar (cf. Gales et al., 2009; Olsen et al., 2009). When fired from the air gun the
tags were attached to a purpose-designed projectile carrier. Retention teeth on the projectile
carrier grip a metal ring fitted to the end of the tag. When the tag makes contact with a whale,
the rapid deceleration of the tag and carrier withdraws the retention teeth and releases the
projectile carrier (Double et al., 2010). The metal ring used to attach the carrier is designed to
fall off in time to reduce the drag of the tag. Tags were deployed from the bow-sprit of a 5.8m
rigid-hulled inflatable boat at a range of 3-8m (see Table 1).
Once deployed, the first dive of the whale will activate the tag. The tag will then transmit upon
each surfacing if it has not transmitted during the previous 30 seconds. On the day of
deployment all tags were set to transmit until 00:00 hrs UTC; after that time they were set to
transmit on a 6hr on, 18hr off duty cycle until the tag fell off the whale, malfunctioned or the two
AA lithium batteries were exhausted. Following each deployment, we used a hand-held receiver
to check that the tag was transmitting. Whenever possible all the whales encountered during the
research period were photographed for photo-identification studies and detailed photographs
were taken of each tag deployment. On deployment we also recorded deployment time,
deployment location, tagging distance, gun pressure, percentage implantation of the tag, pod
size, pod composition, the whale’s reaction to the deployment and the weather and sea
conditions.
During the transmission periods, locations were obtained via the Argos System of polar-orbiting
satellites (Argos, 1990). Each location was allocated a level of accuracy by the Argos System.
Categories 3, 2, 1 have associated error predictions of 250m, 500m and 1500m respectively
whereas categories 0, A, and B have no associated error prediction. All Argos locations were
filtered using the Speed-Distance-Angle function in the R package (R Development Core Team,
2007) ‘Argosfilter’ (Freitas et al., 2008) which has been designed specifically for marine mammal
tracking data and is based on the algorithm developed by McConnell et al. (1992). This function
removes locations from the data set based on unrealistic swimming speeds, distances between
successive locations and turning angles. The conservative default setting of a maximum
swimming speed of 7.2 km/h was applied in this study.
Great circle distances between locations were calculated using an equation that assumes a
spherical Earth of radius 6371 km. Analyses based on distances used the general tagging
location -22.56 S, 113.62 E (WGS 1984) as the 0km reference.
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Satellite tracking of pygmy blue whales
The R package TRIP (Sumner, 2006) was used to interpolate locations at one hour intervals.
ArcGIS (ESRI Software) with Hawth's Analysis Tools for ArcGIS (Beyer, 2004) was used to
calculate the total distance traveled and net distance traveled from the first location in addition
to Kernel Density Estimates.
When possible, skin biopsies were collected for genetic analyses (Table 1) using a biopsy dart
fired from a modified .22 Paxarms rifle (Krutzen et al., 2002). Biopsies were usually collected
simultaneously with the deployment of the satellite tag. Biopsies were stored in 70% ethanol
and DNA subsequently extracted using the Tissue DNA purification kit for the Maxwell 16 DNA
extraction robot (Promega Corporation). The sexes of the tagged whales were determined using
a 5’ exonuclease assay of the polymorphisms in the sex-linked Zinc Finger genes as described by
Morin et al. (Morin et al., 2005).
Results
During the 28-day research period (14th March to 10th April 2011), 20 days were spent at sea. A
total of 35 individual blue whales were sighted in 33 sightings events (average pod size = 1.09;
Figure 1) during the cumulative 128 hours on effort within the Perth Canyon region (>200m
depth).
From the 33 sightings, 12 satellite tags were deployed, biopsy samples were collected from 8
whales (7 tagged whales) and photo-identification data were collected for 13 whales. Although
many whales were sighted during the study period satellite tag deployments were often
hindered by poor weather and/or low light condition although on occasion whales actively
avoided a close approach of the RHIB.
Of the 12 tags, 4 performed very poorly providing either no uplinks at all (N=2), only Z class data
(i.e. no location information, just an uplink - N=1), or failed very quickly (N=1). The most likely
explanation for the poor performance of these four tags is electronic or mechanical failure. We
believe it is unlikely the tag migrated out of the whale rapidly.
The performance of the nine tags that provided location data is summarised in Table 2 and the
tracks provided by these tags are presented in Figures 4 to 6. Whales were tracked from 1 to 162
days (mean = 43.3 days; SD = 47.8). A total of 1056 locations were received, 801 of which were
not removed by the filtering process and therefore considered reliable (Table 2, see Methods).
Whales that provided more than 1 location were tracked for a total of 20,621 km (mean = 2,291
km; max: 8,815) and the total net distance moved from the first to last location was 9,606 km
(mean = 1,067 km; max: 3227 km).
In respect to tag longevity the tags in this study performed reasonably well despite the high
initial failure (Figure 2). Although many tags provided locations over a long period, the number
of locations received from each tag was very low compared to our other studies. Figure 3a&b
show the high proportion of days where few or no locations are received from a tag that is still
active. Another tag (98141) only provided data after several weeks of no uplinks, this suggests
the tag may only have become active as it extruded out from the whale.
Despite tag attrition and the relatively low number of locations delivered by each tag, eight
whales were tracked for over three weeks, four whales provided detailed tracks as they
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Satellite tracking of pygmy blue whales
migrated north along the west coast of Australia and two whales were tracked to the northern
most point on their migration in the Banda and Molucca Seas (Figures 4 to 6).
Following tagging the whales displayed a diversity of behaviours with some immediately
tracking north on their migration up the coast of Australia whereas others spent over a month in
the Perth Canyon and Naturaliste Plateau region of south-western Australia (Figure 7). When
migrating north the whales tended to be 40 to 100km from the coast and were rarely closer to
shore (Figure 5). This distribution is reflected in the depth of the water column at the locations
received (Figure 9) where whales were almost always in over 200m of water and commonly in
over 1000m. Once away from the Australian coast the water depths exceed 4000m. Even in the
Banda and Molucca Seas the water depth is over 2000m.
Daily linear travel distances from the tagging location were highly variable but showed some
distinct patterns. Close to the tagging location in the Perth Canyon and Naturaliste Plateau
region, travel distances were frequently less than 50 km. In contrast, median travel distances of
approximately 100km per day were achieved immediately after the whales migrated north from
this region (Figure 10). Interestingly, they slow again in the North West Cape/Ningaloo Reef
region of north-western Australia before migrating between 50 to 100km per day before
reaching Indonesia where travel speeds drop again to a rate very similar to that seen in the
Perth Canyon and Naturaliste Plateau.
Although likely to be influenced strongly by deployment location and tag longevity, the relative
occupancy duration (Figure 11) illustrates the general offshore distribution (40 to 100km
offshore) of these whales and the areas of concentrated activity in the Perth Canyon/Naturaliste
Plateau, North West Cape/Ningaloo Reef and the Banda and Molucca Seas.
Discussion
This satellite-tracking study of pygmy blue whales provides important new information on the
feeding and migration behaviour of these endangered animals. In total whales were tracked for
over 20,000 km (801 locations) and detailed migratory behaviour for several individual whales
was revealed.
In the first successful deployment of satellite tags on this population of blue whales Gales et al.
(2010) tracked a single whale from the Perth Canyon region to the Banda Sea. This data
provided the first definitive link between the blue whales that feed off the Perth Canyon and
those that occur around Indonesia (Branch et al., 2007). The single whale migrated north along
the west coast of Australia to North West Cape where it headed on an approximate bearing of
30o to 45o to cross the Timor Seas passing through the Savu Sea and Wetar Basin to enter the
Banda Sea east of the Indonesian island of Wetar. This current study provides new data to
indicate that this migration route and final destination appears to be common to this population.
Three whales were tracked through to North West Cape and each then took a similar bearing to
cross the Timor Sea. Unfortunately only one whale was tracked from the Perth Canyon to the
northern end of its migration and it too went to the Banda Sea where it continued to provide
location data for several weeks. This whale did not enter the Banda Sea via the Savu Sea but
instead passed East of Timor and entered near the Leti Islands. Given the approximate bearings
these whales take from North West Cape, they tend to leave Australian waters when north of
Broome to Cape Londonderry in the Kimberley. One other tagged whale from this study did not
provide location data on its migration north but did provide location data for three weeks while
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Satellite tracking of pygmy blue whales
located in the Molucca Sea (north of the Banda Sea) and very near the Equator. This too would
suggest that this region is the common destination for the northern migration of whales that
feed off the Perth Canyon.
On their migration north the tagged whales migrated offshore, usually between 40 and 100km,
and showed distinct changes from high (~100km/day) to lower (<50km/day) travel distances.
The lower rates of travel were seen in the Perth Canyon/Naturaliste Plateau, North West
Cape/Ningaloo Reef and the Banda/Molucca Sea regions. It is known that feeding occurs off the
Perth Canyon but it not clear whether these whales feed off Ningaloo Reef and in the Banda Sea.
Most baleen whales show high to low latitude migrations - at high latitudes they feed and at low
latitudes they calve. The timing of movement described in this study would suggest that these
whales migrate to the Banda/Molucca Seas to calve and breed. However, these whales are
presumably adapted to exploit widely dispersed and ephemeral temperate and tropical food
sources; therefore they may also feed in the Banda/Molucca Seas region too.
Cumulatively our tagging data now show that the greater Perth Canyon/Naturaliste Plateau
region is a feeding area for these whales. Although the whales may concentrate their activities
over the Perth Canyon, they travel over larger areas and can spend many weeks in this region.
On leaving this area, travel speeds are high through to North West Cape which would suggest
feeding opportunities are less common between Perth Canyon and North West Cape.
Tag longevity was reasonable for this deployment but the number of uplinks per day was
surprisingly low for these tags. Indeed the performance differed greatly from tags deployed on
humpback whales in the same year and a similar region (cf. Figure 3, Double et al., 2011). The
most likely explanation for this result is the location of the tag on the whale. If the tag is low on
the body then it may not transmit on each surfacing. However, field operatives did not indicate
that these tags were poorly placed and photographs would suggest the placement is similar to
tags deployed previously on the same species that provided richer and more consistent data
streams. The diagnostic data for these tags has been sent to the manufacturer for further
investigation.
Acknowledgements
The field-based research team for this project was Curt Jenner, Micheline Jenner, Dale Peterson,
Sarah Laverick and Mike Double plus other crew. This project would not have been possible
without the skill, expertise and dedication of Eric King, our engineer at the AAD. We are also
very grateful to Dave Watts and David Smith of the Australian Antarctic Data Centre for their
assistance with data curation and GIS respectively. We thank the Western Australian Marine
Science Institute (WAMSI) for partly funding this project. WAMSI received financial support for
this project from Woodside Energy Ltd as the operator the Browse LNG Development.
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Satellite tracking of pygmy blue whales
Table 1. Summary information of the twelve tag deployments on pygmy blue whales in the Perth Canyon, Western Australia.
Number
Argos number
Date
Time (local)
Place
Latitude
Longitude
Sex
Maturity
Group Size
1
53330
06/04/2011
12:46
Perth Canyon
-31.99
114.98
Female
Adult
1
2
53734
18/03/2011
14:58
Perth Canyon
-32.04
114.91
Unknown
Adult
1
3
53791
30/03/2011
15:07
Perth Canyon
-31.98
115.01
Female
Adult
1
4
98106
26/03/2011
15:46
Perth Canyon
-32.08
114.81
Unknown
Adult
1
5
98108
30/03/2011
15:48
Perth Canyon
-31.99
115.03
Male
Adult
1
6
98115
14/03/2011
13:31
Perth Canyon
-31.92
114.96
Unknown
Adult
1
7
98134
17/03/2011
17:38
Perth Canyon
-32.08
115.00
Unknown
Adult
1
8
98135
06/04/2011
14:55
Perth Canyon
-31.89
114.95
Unknown
Adult
1
9
98141
30/03/2011
16:22
Perth Canyon
-31.99
115.03
Female
Adult
1
10
98122
02/04/2011
13:58
Perth Canyon
-32.04
114.95
Male
Adult
1
11
98132
04/04/2011
11:51
Perth Canyon
-31.96
115.09
Male
Adult
1
12
53349
04/04/2011
15:41
Perth Canyon
-32.00
115.05
Unknown
Adult
1
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Satellite tracking of pygmy blue whales
Table 2. Summary of the post-filtering location data received from the nine satellite tags deployed on pygmy blue whales in the Perth Canyon region
of Western Australia 2011. Only tags that provided location are presented. The number of locations for each Argos accuracy category is given in the
last six columns (see Methods). All dates and times are reported in UTC.
Longevity
(days)
No. of
locations
Net distance
travelled (km)
Total distance
travelled (km)
3
2
1
0
A
B
6/04/2011
1
5
3.6
11.9
1
0
0
1
0
3
18/03/2011
16/04/2011
29
123
252.1
1413.9
0
8
18
7
41
49
53791
30/03/2011
16/04/2011
18
70
1219.6
1657.8
0
7
8
9
15
31
98106
28/03/2011
3/05/2011
36
15
1386.6
1669.4
0
0
1
1
0
13
98108
30/03/2011
17/05/2011
49
83
2355.7
3773.4
0
2
11
4
22
44
98115
14/03/2011
11/05/2011
58
60
164.5
1495.6
1
2
4
6
17
30
98134
17/03/2011
1/04/2011
16
59
912.4
1316.7
1
11
13
4
12
18
98135
6/04/2011
14/09/2011
162
375
3227.3
8815.7
6
21
22
22
108
196
98141
14/06/2011
5/07/2011
21
11
83.8
467.0
0
0
0
1
1
9
390
801
9,606
20,621
122
292
283
110
203
240
Tag
Start Date
Last Date
53330
6/04/2011
53734
Totals
Page 12
Satellite tracking of pygmy blue whales
Figure 1. Deployment locations for the nine blue whales that were satellite-tagged between the
11th March and the 6th April 2011.
Page 13
Satellite tracking of pygmy blue whales
Figure 2. Survival curves for the six latest tagging campaigns conducted by the AMMC research
group. A survival curve relating to a group of tags deployed early in tag development (pre 2008)
is also shown.
.
Page 14
0.15
0.00
0.05
0.10
Proportion
0.20
0.25
0.30
Satellite tracking of pygmy blue whales
0
5
10
15
Number of locations
a)
15
Locations
10
5
98141
98135
98134
98115
98108
98106
53791
53734
53330
0
Tag number
b)
Figure 3. Summary of tag performance: a) number of locations per day; and b) number of
locations per day for each PTT.
Page 15
Satellite tracking of pygmy blue whales
SATELLITE TRACKING OF WESTERN AUSTRALIAN BLUE WHALES
100°E
110°E
120°E
130°E
140°E
PTT Numbers
53330
53734
53791
98106
10°S
10°S
98108
98115
98134
98135
98141
DERBY
20°S
20°S
PORT HEDLAND
AUSTRALIA
CARNARVON
KALBARRI
GERALDTON
30°S
30°S
PERTH
100°E
0
250
110°E
120°E
130°E
Kilometers
500
PROJECTION: Azithumal Equidistant
True Scale at 25oS
o
Central Meridian at 130 E
140°E
Adult Blue Whales tagged during their northbound
migration in the months of March and April 2011.
This research was conducted by the Australian Marine Mammal Centre
of the Australian Antarctic Division (DEWHA) in collaboration with the
Western Australian Marine Science Institute (WAMSI), Woodside Energy Ltd.,
and the Centre for Whale Research (WA) Inc.
© A us tralia n A ntarctic D ivision
Figure 4. The complete tracks obtained from the nine satellite-tagged pygmy blue whales.
Page 16
Woodside Energy Ltd. provided funds to WAMSI to support this project.
Satellite tracking of pygmy blue whales
SATELLITE TRACKING OF WESTERN AUSTRALIAN BLUE WHALES
110°E
120°E
North West CapeExmouth
PTT Numbers
53330
53734
53791
98106
CARNARVON
98108
WESTERN AUSTRALIA
98115
98134
98135
98141
KALBARRI
GERALDTON
30°S
30°S
Perth Canyon
PERTH
Naturaliste Plateau
110°E
120°E
Adult Blue Whales tagged during their northbound
migration in the months of March and April 2011.
PROJECTION: Azithumal Equidistant
True Scale at 25oS
o
Central Meridian at 130 E
This research was conducted by the Australian Marine Mammal Centre
of the Australian Antarctic Division (DEWHA) in collaboration with the
Western Australian Marine Science Institute (WAMSI), Woodside Energy Ltd.,
and the Centre for Whale Research (WA) Inc.
© A us tra lian A ntarctic D ivision
Woodside Energy Ltd. provided funds to WAMSI to support this project.
Figure 5. The tracks obtained off Western Australia from the nine satellite-tagged pygmy blue whales.
Page 17
Satellite tracking of pygmy blue whales
SATELLITE TRACKING OF WESTERN AUSTRALIAN BLUE WHALES
110°E
120°E
130°E
PTT Numbers
53330
53734
53791
98106
98108
98115
98134
10°S
10°S
98135
98141
Scott Reef
Camden Sound
Pender Bay
James Price Point
Broome
DERBY
AUSTRALIA
20°S
Karratha
20°S
PORT HEDLAND
Exmouth
North West Cape
110°E
120°E
130°E
Adult Blue Whales tagged during their northbound
migration in the months of March and April 2011.
PROJECTION: Azithumal Equidistant
True Scale at 25oS
Central Meridian at 130oE
This research was conducted by the Australian Marine Mammal Centre
of the Australian Antarctic Division (DEWHA) in collaboration with the
Western Australian Marine Science Institute (WAMSI), Woodside Energy Ltd.,
and the Centre for Whale Research (WA) Inc.
© A u stra lia n A n tarctic D iv ision
Woodside Energy Ltd. provided funds to WAMSI to support this project.
Figure 6. The tracks obtained off northern Western Australia from the nine satellite-tagged pygmy blue whales.
Page 18
2500
2000
1500
1000
0
500
Distance from tagged location (km)
3000
3500
Satellite tracking of pygmy blue whales
0
10
20
30
40
50
Days since tagged
2500
2000
1500
1000
0
500
Distance from tagged location (km)
3000
3500
a)
0
50
100
150
Days since tagged
b)
Figure 7. Linear distance from the tagging location for a) the first 50 days post deployment and
b) throughout the full transmission period against the number of days since the tag was
deployed.
Page 19
Satellite tracking of pygmy blue whales
Figure 8. Distance between the locations provided by the nine satellite-tagged pygmy blue
whales and the coastline of Western Australia. Data are categorised relative to their linear (great
circle) distance from an approximate single tagging location (-32.00 S, 114.97 E). Indicative
geographic locations are provided above the graph (cf. Figure 8). The box plot displays the
median, the 10th, 90th (whiskers) and the 25th and 75th percentiles (box).
Page 20
Exmouth
-4000
-6000
-10000
-8000
Depth (metres)
-2000
0
Perth
Carnarvon
Satellite tracking of pygmy blue whales
-300
0
300
600
900 1200
1650
2100
2550
Distance from tagging location (km)
Figure 9. The sea depth at the locations provided by the nine satellite tags that provided more
than one reliable location. Data are categorised relative to their linear (great circle) distance
from an approximate single tagging location (-32.00 S, 114.97 E). Negative distances are those to
the South of the tagging location. The box plot displays the median, the 10th, 90th (whiskers)
and the 25th and 75th percentiles (box).
Page 21
Exmouth
150
100
50
0
Linear distance travelled in 24 hours (km)
Perth
Carnarvon
Satellite tracking of pygmy blue whales
-300
0
300
600
900 1200
1650
2100
2550
Linear distance from tagging location (km)
Figure 10. Graph showing the linear (great circle) distance traveled in a 24-hour period by the
nine tagged whales that provided more that one reliable location. Data are categorized relative
to their linear (great circle) distance from an approximate single tagging location (-32.00
S,114.97 E). Indicative geographic locations are provided above the graph (cf. Figure 8). The box
plot displays the median, the 10th, 90th (whiskers) and the 25th and 75th percentiles (box) if
sufficient data are available.
Page 22
Satellite tracking of pygmy blue whales
SATELLITE TRACKING OF WESTERN AUSTRALIAN BLUE WHALES
100°E
110°E
120°E
130°E
140°E
Occupation Duration
Cumulative Days
0 - 1.50
1.50 - 3.00
3.00 - 4.50
4.50 - 6.00
10°S
10°S
6.00 - 7.50
7.50 - 9.00
9.00 - 10.50
10.50 - 12
12 - 13.50
20°S
20°S
AUSTRALIA
30°S
30°S
100°E
0
110°E
120°E
130°E
Kilometers
250 500
PROJECTION: Azithumal Equidistant
True Scale at 25oS
Central Meridian at 130 oE
140°E
Adult Blue Whales tagged during their northbound
migration in the months of March and April 2011.
This research was conducted by the Australian Marine Mammal Centre
of the Australian Antarctic Division (DEWHA) in collaboration with the
Western Australian Marine Science Institute (WAMSI), Woodside Energy Ltd.,
and the Centre for Whale Research (WA) Inc.
© A ustralian A ntarctic D ivision
Woodside Energy Ltd. provided funds to WAMSI to support this project.
Figure 11. Cumulative occupancy times of the nine satellite-tagged whales determined by interpolating the whale tracks to daily points. The density
is determined using a Kernel Density Smoother with 2 degree sampling radius. Note that although the unit is in cumulative days this is a relative
rather than absolute measure of occupancy. Due to the generally short longevity of most tags these data are biased by the deployment location.
Page 23