Nearshore marine fish diversity in southern California using trawl information from the Southern California Coastal Water Research Project.

This is a point file of mean fish diversity within 5 minute grid cells. The Shannon Index of diversity was calculated from Southern California Coastal Water Research Project (SCCWRP) fish trawl data. Data from 425 fishery independent trawls ranging from 2-215 meters depth were collected in 1994 and 1998 during the months of June-August. Using ArcGIS, 5 x 5 minute grids were created and mean diversity was calculated for each grid cell containing data. Gear included a 7.6-m head-rope semi balloon otter trawl with 1.25 cm codend mesh trawled for 5-10 minutes at each station. Including all fish identified to the species level resulted in 150 fish species. For more information on trawl methods, see Allen et al. (1997), and Allen et al. (2003).