This dataset is a description of the shallow coastal marine fauna found in the Vestfold Hills and Rauer Island area, Antarctica. The results are from various surveys in this region over a 12 month period in 1981-82, and a full listing of species (with photographs) is given in the documentation. It includes benthic, pelagic and planktonic organisms of the coast as well as those that inhabit the ice-water interface.

Antarctic Fur Seals from Heard Island fed mainly on fish, but the prey species changed both seasonally and inter-annually. The majority of prey were pelagic myctophids characteristic of deep oceanic water, and were generally taken in autumn and winter. The only other fish taken in significant numbers was Champsocephalus gunnari which was mostly taken from late winter through early autumn when it was co-dominant in the diet with the Krefftichthys anderssoni. Males and females foraged in different localities and in different parts of the water column. Males foraged mainly to the south of Heard Island in winter usually diving deep by day, feeding on scattering layers. In summer males also fed on the shelf, presumably to the north and east of Heard Island on K. anderssoni at shallow depths primarily at night. Although diet studies provided little evidence of feeding on crustaceans, diving data indicate that some males may travel to Antarctic waters in winter to feed on krill. The fields in this dataset are: Months Species Scats Time foraging Number of Dives Time Submerged (minutes) Mean Dive Duration (minutes) Maximum Depth (metres)

This log contains notes and observations of many biological species from the Mawson and Davis areas, collected between 1954 and 1960. Species include, Crabeater Seals, Weddell Seals, Ross Seals, Leopard Seals, Elephant Seals, Adelie Penguins, Emperor Penguins and Skuas. The hard copy of the log has been archived by the Australian Antarctic Division library.

This file contains a report of biological field work undertaken in the Casey region during 1976. It includes information on Elephant Seals, Leopard Seals, Crabeater Seals, Adelie Penguins, Emperor Penguins, Skuas, Silver-Grey Petrels, Antarctic Petrels, Cape Pigeons, Snow Petrels, Wilson's Storm Petrels, Giant Petrels and Whales The hard copy of the log has been archived by the Australian Antarctic Division library.

This file contains a report of biological field work undertaken in the Casey region between 1977 and 1983. It includes information on Elephant Seals, Leopard Seals, Crabeater Seals, Adelie Penguins, Emperor Penguins, Skuas, Silver-Grey Petrels, Antarctic Petrels, Cape Pigeons, Snow Petrels, Wilson's Storm Petrels, Giant Petrels and Whales The hard copy of the log has been archived by the Australian Antarctic Division library.

Metadata record for data from ASAC Project 2184 See the link below for public details on this project. The objectives of this project were: To characterise the mating system of the Weddell seal by: 1) acoustically tracking males under the ice during the breeding season, 2) measuring changes in health and condition of individual males over the breeding season, 3) determining whether vocalisations are used as advertisements of individual quality to attract females, and/or in male-male competition, 4) develop and use a combination of microsatellite loci tests to assign paternity to newborn pups, and then use these results to determine whether the variance in male mating success is related to territory size, tenure and/or individual characteristics. A large number of collected data files are available for download. Many files are in an unknown format, but will open with a standard text editor. See below for summaries of the two seasons of fieldwork. 1997/1998 Season: In November/December 1997, we conducted a pilot study at the Turtle Rock colony (77.727S, 166.85E) in McMurdo Sound. All of the techniques outlined in the proposal were successfully trialled. Acoustic pingers were attached to seven males and five females for a total deployment of 104 seal days and mass and morphometrics obtained for each animal. Preliminary analysis of male movements indicate that males held adjacent yet non-overlapping territories on the southern side of Turtle Rock, along a major ice crack and where the congregation of females was highest. Both the size and shape of the males territories, and the evidence from the vocalisation data show that we captured the dominant males at the site. Both males and females were immobilised using Ketamine/Diazepam with no loss of an animal, nor signs of respiratory depression. Vocalisations were recorded from all territory holding males, and both behavioural and vocal responses of both male and female seals to familiar and unfamiliar calls were observed. We bleach marked all animals to which we attached pingers and these markings were visible on our under-ice video - with which we also recorded behavioural responses to both animals and our under-ice speaker during playback experiments. We conducted a daily census of all animals at Turtle Rock and above-ice movements were recorded. Skin samples were taken from 24/25 males seen at the site and 43/45 mother-pup pairs (One male was only seen on a single occasion at the colony, though sighted elsewhere, and two females disappeared shortly after our arrival at the colony). Significant findings Dominant males hold under-ice territories which are adjacent yet non-overlapping - however territory boundaries change considerably over the course of the breeding season. Males respond to playbacks of their own and others calls as do females. Females towards the end of lactation will visit each males territories. Whether to assess individual males or not is yet to be determined. 1998/1999 Season Between October 29 through December 10 1998, the behaviour of male and female weddell seals at the Turtle Rock colony (77.727S, 166.85E) were monitored both above and below the ice. This season, we switched from the seal sled method of capture and restraint (see K027 report 1997) to the use of a pole net and tripod. Seals were bagged by placing a seal hood over their head and then a 3m pole net (consisting of two, 3m long poles connected by a 2m wide, 2.5cm mesh, net , was placed over them and the poles tied tightly at both ends, leaving them constrained within the netting bag. The pole net was then hoisted under a tripod (built by Antarctica New Zealand) using a chain block suspended from the head of the tripod, and the animal weighed using electronic scales. For attachment of instruments, animals were immobilised with an intra-muscular injection of Ketamine/Diazepam at a dose rate of approximately 2.0mg/100 kg Ketamine, 0.4mg/100 kg Diazepam as was used successfully in 1997. Animals were

From the abstract of the attached paper: Underwater calling behaviour between breathing bouts of a single adult male Weddell seal (Leptonychotes weddellii) was examined with respect to call type and timing late in the breeding season at Davis Station, Antarctica. Underwater calls and breathing sounds were recorded on 1 and 8 December 1997. Thirty-seven sequences of calls prior to surfacing to breathe and 36 post-submerging sets of calls were analysed with respect to probability of call type occurrence and timing. Dives were 461 plus or minus 259 seconds (mean plus or minus standard deviation). The seal called every 29.7 plus or minus 56.2 seconds throughout a dive. The first call after submerging was usually (n = 29 of 36) a low frequency (less than 0.8 kHz) growl. Three patterns of three- to five-call type sequences were made following 28 of 36 breathing bouts. Call type patterns after submerging exhibited fewer different sequences than those before surfacing (chi-squared = 61.42, DF = 4, p less than 0.000001). The call usage patterns before surfacing were diverse and did not indicate when the seal was going to surface, a time when he would be vulnerable to attack from below. Our findings suggest the hypotheses that territorial male Weddell seals call throughout each dive and use stereotyped call patterns to identify themselves while vocally asserting dominance. This work was completed as part of ASAC project 2122 (ASAC_2122). The fields in this dataset are: Tape number Sequence per tape Sequence entire data Call types Count since last breath Last breathing bout number Count prior to next breath Time in tape (seconds) End time of last breath Start time of next breath Time since dive The 'sequence' relates to the sequence of call types that are given between the end of the last breath of a breathing bout and the beginning of the first breath the next time the seal surfaces to breathe. Essentially the report relates to the stereotyped nature of the call types, especially just after the dominant male dives after finishing breathing. Each time the animal surfaced, that was identified as a breathing bout. They are numbered sequentially. At the very start of the data set the seal had to surface before the breathing bout could be counted (as number 1). This procedure enabled us to identify the order and timing of the calls that occurred immediately before and immediately after each breathing bout. Thus, the 'count prior to the next breath' gives the order of the calls before the seal surfaced to breathe again (third last, second last, last,). The call types were analysed with respect to the following pattern: third last, second last, last, breathing bout, first, second, third, etc. to third last, second last, last, next breathing bout.

This file contains a report of biological field work undertaken in the Casey region during 1976. It includes work done on seals and seabirds. The hard copy of the log has been archived by the Australian Antarctic Division library.

This file contains a log of biological observations made in the Davis region during 1960. It includes information on Elephant Seals, Leopard Seals, Crabeater Seals, Adelie Penguins, Emperor Penguins, Skuas, Silver-Grey Petrels, Antarctic Petrels, Cape Pigeons, Snow Petrels, Wilson's Storm Petrels, Giant Petrels and Whales. This is a scanned copy of the original log. The hard copy of the log has been archived at the National Archives of Australia.

This record describes the collection of marine fauna sampled from coastal areas of the Vestfold Hills in 1999. The project was undertaken to compile morphometric data on Weddell seal prey species. Benthic prawns i.e. Chorismus antarcticus and Notocrangon antarcticus, are common Weddell prey species at the Vestfold Hills. We fished for prawns using mesh traps (40 x 20 x 20 cm3). The traps were set at Magnetic Island in May, and in Ellis Fjord in December. The site near Magnetic Island was chosen when the fast-ice fractured enabling the gear to be set in natural tracts of open water. The site in Ellis Fjord was chosen on the basis of published information regarding bathymetry and the range of depths inhabited by prawn species. We waited until December to sample in Ellis Fjord so that the fishing hole did not refreeze. Prawns were caught only in Ellis Fjord and only when the traps were deployed open i.e. with zips on the doors to get the catch out left undone. Approximately 50 prawns of various sizes were caught over three days at the same location, 200 m east of the crossing at Ellis Narrows. The catch has been stored whole in the Australian Antarctic Division freezer in Hobart. Bycatch included amphipods and Notothenid fish at Magnetic Island, and echinoderms, holothurians and Notothenid fish in Ellis Fjord. Some of the bycatch were retained and are stored frozen with the prawns. The linked dataset contains the measurements of length, mass, carapace length and sex (juvenile, male, female) of the prawn catch. All of the prawns were Chorismus antarcticus. The adult females were brooding eggs. The best fit linear regressions were y = 0.3529x - 2.4824, (R2 = 0.9504) for carapace length to predict body mass, and y = 3.5267x + 4.5846 (R2 = 0.9544) for carapace length to body length. The associated URLs contain all of the data, including spreadsheet of data, a scatterplot of the length mass relationship, and a mass frequency histogram of the catch. The fields in this dataset are: Chorismus ID carapace length (mm) body length (mm) mass (g) sex