This dataset provides stable isotope values (delta13C, delta15N) of 174 bone collagen samples collected in the western South Atlantic. Collagen was extracted from bone samples for six whale species as follows: Antarctic blue whale (n = 20), fin whale (n = 64), humpback whale (n = 46), sei whale (n = 40), southern right whale (n = 1), and sperm whale (n = 3). Bone samples were collected from ex-whaling sites across three locations in the western South Atlantic: the Falkland Islands, South Georgia, and the South Orkneys. This samples were used to estimate niche partitioning and diet specialism of whale species in the western South Atlantic. Funding: NE/L002507/1 (a NERC-Cambridge ESS Doctoral Training Partnership studentship from the Natural Environment Research Council awarded to Danielle L. Buss) and the Ecosystems component of the British Antarctic Survey Polar Science for Planet Earth Programme, funded by NERC.

This dataset summarises cetacean sightings made during January and February 2019 by an experienced team of cetacean researchers doing regular small-scale surveys in coastal waters close to Cumberland Bay, South Georgia. Some surveys were just within Cumberland Bay, and others include locations to the west and east of Cumberland Bay, as far as Stromness Bay (west) and St Andrews Bay (east). The dataset includes survey tracks, survey effort periods, species sighted and numbers of animals encountered. Over the survey period, Cumberland Bay alone was surveyed six times. Cumberland Bay plus adjoining waters were surveyed nine times, a total of 25:12 hr of search effort for all surveys. Nine expeditions were carried out in January (13:39 hr effort, with whales sighted on six surveys) and six in February (11:33 hr effort, with whales sighted on three surveys). A total of 43 whales (41 humpback whales) were observed during 26 sighting events, nine of which were within Cumberland Bay; a further 10 humpback whales were sighted at the entrance to the Bay (Right Whale Rocks), making a total of 19 humpback whale sightings within or at the entrance to Cumberland Bay. EU BEST 2.0 Medium Grant 1594, DARWIN PLUS award DPLUS057 and funding from the South Georgia Heritage Trust and Friends of South Georgia Island.

Marine mammal sightings in Ryder Bay, an inlet of northern Marguerite Bay on the Western Antarctic Peninsula, were collated for the period 1998 - 2023. The weekly maximum number recorded for each species are presented here, alongside the weekly maximum score for sea ice coverage. Observations of marine mammals and sea ice were undertaken as part of the Rothera Time Series (RaTS), a long-term year-round programme of oceanographic and biological sampling of the Antarctic marine environment. Whales and seals are an important component of the Southern Ocean pelagic fauna, but winter data are very sparse. Long series of observations such as this enable patterns of interannual variability and/or long-term change to be revealed. Presenting the marine mammal data alongside sea ice coverage data enables investigation of the relationship between the two variables. Sightings of eight species were collated; Antarctic minke whale (Balaenoptera bonaerensis), humpback whale (Megaptera novaeangliae), common killer whale (Orcinus orca), Antarctic fur seal (Arctocephalus gazella), leopard seal (Hydrurga leptonyx), Weddell seal (Leptonychotes weddellii), crabeater seal (Lobodon carcinophaga), and Southern elephant seal (Mirounga leonina). Data collection has been supported since 1997 by the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) through core funding supplied to the British Antarctic Survey. Since 2017, it has been supported by NERC award "National Capability - Polar Expertise Supporting UK Research" (NE/R016038/1).

Monitoring whales in remote regions is important for their conservation, using traditional survey platforms (boat and plane) is logistically difficult. The use of very high-resolution satellite imagery to survey whales, particularly in remote regions, is gaining interest and momentum. However, development is hindered by the lack of automated systems to detect whales. Such a system requires an open source library containing examples of whales and confounding features in satellite imagery. Here we present such a database, created by surveying 6,300 km2 of satellite imagery in various regions across the globe, which allowed us to detect 633 whale objects and 120 confounding features. Funding was provided from a BAS Innovation Voucher.

Monitoring whales in remote regions is important for their conservation, using traditional survey platforms (boat and plane) is logistically difficult. The use of very high-resolution satellite imagery to survey whales, particularly in remote regions, is gaining interest and momentum. However, development is hindered by the lack of automated systems to detect whales. Such a system requires an open source library containing examples of whales and confounding features in satellite imagery. Here we present such a database, created by surveying 6,300 km2 of satellite imagery in various regions across the globe, which allowed us to detect 633 whale objects. This dataset contains image chips as png files. Funding was provided from a BAS Innovation Voucher.

This dataset presents point annotations of stranded whale (Sperm whales, Physeter macrocephalus) and dolphin (Pilot whales, Globicephala melas edwardii) species identified in very high-resolution (VHR) optical and SAR satellite imagery, along offshore islands of New Zealand and Tasmania, between 2018-2023. Cetacean strandings offer significant conservation value for the assessment of ecosystems and serve as early warning of emerging concerns regarding animal, ocean, and human health. However stranding monitoring programmes are scarce or non-existent along minimally populated areas, coastlines with limited economic resources, geographically remote areas, complex coastlines and areas of geopolitical unrest. VHR satellite imagery offers the prospect of improving monitoring in these regions. While VHR satellite imagery is able to detect large baleen whale strandings, mass strandings are predominantly smaller-sized odontocetes (toothed whale and dolphin species). Detecting odontocetes is therefore crucial for VHR satellites to be useful for monitoring strandings globally. In addition, scaling up the use of VHR optical satellite imagery is limited by cloud cover, the primary environmental condition governing successful imagery collection. Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) satellites enable VHR imaging of Earth in cloudy regions and in darkness. This approach could facilitate strandings detection in cloudy regions and independent of daylight hours, which is critical for enabling timely emergency responses to unfolding stranding events. Here, we present data from four smaller odontocete mass strandings of long-finned pilot whale (LFPW), on Chatham, Pitt and Stewart Island, New Zealand, and one large odontocete (sperm whale) mass stranding on King Island, Tasmania, Australia between 2018-2023, to successfully detect and quantify large and small odontocete strandings in VHR optical and SAR satellite imagery. This research has been supported by the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) through a SENSE CDT studentship (grant no. NE/T00939X/1). The research was further supported by additional funding provided through, the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) Innovation Voucher, Sentinel Hub and their #30MapChallenge competition, BAS Ecosystems, and the support and cooperation of Airbus and Maxar Technologies Ltd, for their rapid response and efforts to enable successful collection of the imagery analysed here.