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Published VersionCC BY V4.0, Open Access
Journal article
Drone-Based Assessment of Marine Megafauna off Wave-Exposed Sandy Beaches
Remote Sensing, Vol.15(16), pp.1-11
2023
Abstract
The wave-impacted waters off exposed sandy beaches support marine megafauna, including dolphins, whales, sharks, rays and turtles. To characterise variation in megafaunal assemblages in this challenging habitat, we used drone-based remote sensing to survey marine megafauna off 23 beaches along 1050 km of the New South Wales (NSW, Australia) coast from 2017 to 2020. The surveys occurred from September to May and included 17,085 drone flights, with megafaunal abundances standardised by flight hours. In total, we identified 3838 individual animals from 16 taxa, although no megafauna was observed off 5 of the 23 beaches surveyed. Bottlenose dolphins were the most commonly sighted taxa and accounted for 82.3% of total megafaunal abundance. Cownose (6.7%) and eagle (3.4%) rays were the next most abundant taxa, with potentially dangerous sharks being rarely sighted (<1% of total megafauna). The megafaunal assemblages off wave-exposed beaches in northern NSW significantly differed from those in the central region, whereas the assemblages off the central region and southern NSW did not differ significantly. Wave exposure and water temperature were the best predictors of megafaunal assemblage structure. The richness of marine megafauna off ocean beaches was significantly greater in northern than southern NSW, and turtles were only observed off beaches in the northern region. However, variation in megafaunal richness, as well as the abundances of total megafauna, dolphins, rays, sharks and turtles were not significantly explained by water temperature, wave height, distance to estuary, or proximity to the nearest reef. Overall, drone-based surveys determined that megafaunal assemblages off wave-exposed beaches are characterised by sparse individuals or small groups of sharks, turtles and rays, punctuated by occasional large aggregations of dolphins, cownose rays and schooling sharks. The exception to this pattern was bottlenose dolphins, which routinely patrolled some beaches in northern NSW.
Details
- Title
- Drone-Based Assessment of Marine Megafauna off Wave-Exposed Sandy Beaches
- Authors
- Brendan P. Kelaher (Corresponding Author) - Southern Cross UniversityKim I. Monteforte (Author) - Southern Cross UniversityStephen G. Morris (Author) - New South Wales Department of Primary IndustriesThomas A. Schlacher (Author) - University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, School of Science, Technology and EngineeringDuane T. March (Author) - National Parks and Wildlife ServiceJames P. Tucker (Author) - Southern Cross UniversityPaul A. Butcher (Author) - New South Wales Department of Primary Industries
- Publication details
- Remote Sensing, Vol.15(16), pp.1-11
- Publisher
- MDPI AG
- Date published
- 2023
- DOI
- 10.3390/rs15164018
- ISSN
- 2072-4292
- Copyright note
- © 2023 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
- Organisation Unit
- School of Science, Technology and Engineering
- Language
- English
- Record Identifier
- 99746596602621
- Output Type
- Journal article
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- Collaboration types
- Domestic collaboration
- Web Of Science research areas
- Environmental Sciences
- Geosciences, Multidisciplinary
- Imaging Science & Photographic Technology
- Remote Sensing
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