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Latest Progress

Posted 30 september 2011

Currently the Australian Marine Mammal Centre is focusing on the following projects:

• National Marine Mammal Data Portal

  We have obtained approval to use/enhance StrandNet, a database of marine wildlife strandings and deaths, by the Queensland Department of Environment and Resource Management. We are now assessing StrandNet with the view toward using it as the basis for a National Marine Mammal Data Portal.
  
  Following on from Queensland's approval, we have obtained the source code and database structure for StrandNet which will allow us to establish the best way to use it to develop a National Marine Mammal Data Portal. We are doing this in collaboration with the Australian Antarctic Data Centre. We have developed a document 'Description of marine mammal data portal entities' which is a high level description of the entities and fields that are likely to form the structure of the Portal. The description has been based on an examination of the data structures of StrandNet and other relevant State and Territory databases.

• Cetacean Sightings Application

  This standalone data collection/reporting desktop application for collecting cetacean sighting and other survey data from the seismic industry is currently being released for Beta testing. This application allows us to collect a range of data in a standard format from the seismic industry.

• Ship strike database

  Finalising testing prior to releasing our online Ship strike reporting tool based on the International Whaling Commission data structure and fields. This will allow us to collect ship strike data and report it to the IWC as part of Australia's annual report.

• Metadata

  Finalising testing of the online administrative and metadata entry tools prior to release. These tools have been built to collect detailed information on the datasets generated through projects funded by the AMMC Grants Scheme

• Public sightings, entanglements and strandings

  We are developing a simple web page for the reporting of opportunistic sightings of marine mammals by the public. This data will flow into the NMMD portal;

• Previous Workshops

  • National Marine Mammal Database - Workshop

    16th-17th February 2011, Theatrette, Australian Antarctic Division
    Hosted by the Australian Marine Mammal Centre (AMMC) and the Australian Antarctic Data Centre (AADC) of DSEWPaC
    
    The workshop was held to discuss and assess the many issues associated with the development of a National Marine Mammal Data Portal that will facilitate the collection, collation and presentation of marine mammal sightings, strandings, bycatch, disentanglement, ship-strike, tracking and survey data.
    
    Further information about the meeting including meeting participants, report, presentations and other associated documents is available (Login information can be obtained by emailing sightingsdata@aad.gov.au)