This dataset presents the suitable area(s) for very high-resolution optical satellite imagery to monitor live and stranded cetaceans around the UK and UK Overseas Territories, based on five-year monthly median 'Total Cloud Cover' and '10m Wind Speed' ERA5 global reanalysis data. Monitoring live and stranded cetaceans can be expensive and logistically challenging resulting in knowledge gaps. Very high-resolution (VHR) optical satellites are considered a potential solution to addressing some of these gaps. Despite success at detecting live and stranded cetaceans, satellites have only been trialled on restricted spatial and temporal scales. We established a framework for assessing the feasibility of using VHR optical satellite-based monitoring of cetaceans at high temporal frequency and local to global scales, focusing on the UK and UK Overseas Territories as a case study. We assessed the primary environmental conditions necessary for successful application of this technology: cloud cover and wind speed. Here we present the spatial feasibility of satellite monitoring around the UK, and the Caribbean and the Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas), based on five-year (2018-2022) monthly median 'Total Cloud Cover' and '10m Wind Speed' ERA5 global reanalysis data. The data are .tif format depicting the five-year (2018-2022) monthly median of the respective environmental variable, which is subject to a user defined threshold to generate vector (polygon shapefile) format feasibility maps, depicting the 'suitable area(s)' mapped to the study area. For live cetacean monitoring, 'suitable area(s)' delineate where both five year monthly average environmental variables met the predefined threshold over open water, and for stranded cetaceans 'Total Cloud Cover' only along the coastline (2km either side of the coastline). The suitable areas are merged (and dissolved) for projects interested in monitoring both live and stranded cetaceans, which can be extended to include monitoring of floating dead cetaceans. This research has been supported by the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) through a SENSE CDT studentship (grant no. NE/T00939X/1) and the Joint Nature Conservation Committee.

Biological tissue samples from octopus species collected from the Southern Ocean, James Clark Ross cruise no. JR147/145. A large collection of tissue samples from deep sea and Antarctic target groups had already been collected in previous cruises. The specific objective of this cruise was to target three species of octopus, Pareledone charcoti (peak abundance 100m depth), Pareledone turqueti (peak abundance 100-200m) and Adelieledone polymorpha (peak abundance 250-350m), for the micro-evolution (i.e. population genetics) component of the project. Most of the octopuses were captured with an otter trawl, due to its relatively large sampling area and the fact that it can be trawled quickly (4 knots) which prevents octopuses from swimming out of it.

The British Antarctic Survey holds one of the most extensive collections of Antarctic rocks and fossils anywhere in the world. These are predominately from the Antarctic Peninsula region and Scotia Arc, although there is also important material from areas such as the Ellsworth Mountains, Marie Byrd Land and the Transantarctic Mountains. Some of these specimens go back to the very earliest days of the Falkland Islands Dependencies Survey in the 1940s, and include collections made by the pioneer geologists at bases such as Hope Bay and Deception Island. Right from the outset, every specimen collected in Antarctica has been numbered and catalogued, and a vast reference archive is now available for use by the geoscience community. We currently have information relating to 150,000 field samples often with associated analysis data such as geochemistry. Additionally we hold a variety of data for nearly 500 marine cores. Metadata and data are stored digitally within a number of Oracle 10g database tables and for some datasets such as the type and figured fossil collection there is external access through a web interface. However, a significant number of datasets exist only in analog form and are held within the BAS archives organised by individual geologist. This abstract acts as an overview of the BAS geological data - both terrestrial and marine.

This database contains information on the herbarium specimens held in the herbarium of the British Antarctic Survey (international code AAS) as well as information about specimens collected in the Antarctic and sub-Antarctic and held in other world herbaria. There are over 70 000 records, predominantly of mosses and lichens, but also of vascular plants, ferns, fungi and algae collected in Antarctic and sub-Antarctic regions as well as some from surrounding continents, particularly South America. The collection from South Georgia And The South Sandwich Islands started in 1775 and from Antarctica in 1834. Documents relating to the Herbarium are kept in the BAS Archives (LS2/4). The records can be searched and downloaded on: http://apex.nerc-bas.ac.uk/f?p=148:1. There is also a facility to see a distribution map of specimens retrieved by querying the database.