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.