Cetacean sightings in South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands waters, made by a team of four professional marine mammal observers during the British Antarctic Survey CCAMLR synoptic krill survey on the RRS Discovery (DY098), January and February 2019. The latitude and longitude of each sighting, the identified species, bearing and distance from the vessel, and estimated group size are provided. These data have been used by BAS to estimate (i) humpback whale and (ii) baleen whale abundance in South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands waters in 2019. Funding was provided by the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, as part of the Overseas Territories Blue Belt programme, as well as the South Georgia Heritage Trust, Friends of South Georgia Island and Darwin PLUS award DPLUS057.

This dataset comprises chlorophyll-a and phaeopigment-a concentrations (mg l-1) obtained from seawater samples collected during cruise DY098 on the RRS Discovery during the period 2019-01-02 to 2019-02-10. The cruise was part of the POETS-WCB and SCOOBIES time-series with an additional survey undertaken around the South Sandwich Islands (SSI). The data contained within this dataset were predominantly collected during the SSI component of the cruise. Samples were collected at up to 6 depths across the top 400 m (approx. 5 m, 50 m, 100 m, 200 m, 400 m and the chlorophyll maximum). Samples were collected and filtered on board and analysed at the British Antarctic Survey laboratory. This work was funded through NERC National Capability Science funding (NC-SS) for the Polar Ocean Ecosystem Time Series (POETS) and FCO grant NEB1686.

This dataset contains penguin survey data and imagery from unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) across the South Sandwich Islands, from December 2019 to February 2020. It comprises orthotiff images (orthotiffs) and digital elevation models (DEMS) of surveyed sites, geographic penguin colony outlines, nest coordinates for individual species, mixed species'' sub-colonies and groups where species-level identification was not possible. Finally, it also includes the total count for these different categories for each individual site, alongside an estimate of the nests that were not counted due to distortion in certain parts of the orthotiffs. The orthotiff images and DEMS were produced using Structure-from-motion (SfM), a three-dimensional (3D) rendering technology, and were then loaded into QGIS to manually extract nest coordinates for chinstrap, adelie, gentoo and macaroni penguins. Where counting nests was not possible, the estimate of possible nests present was calculated using regions of the site where a count was carried out. This dataset was collected by researchers at the Polar Ecology and Conservation Group at the University of Oxford with the aim that surveying these sites and updating current population assessments over the South Sandwich Islands will aide conservation policy and advance monitoring technology and capability. The South Sandwich Islands expedition was supported by the Government of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, and funded by the John Ellerman Foundation and donations from passengers on Quark Expeditions'' ships.