SkiMonkey mounted MicroCAT CTD data from between Yzerfontein and offshore Cape Agulhas on Voyage 185 of the Ellen Khuzwayo, January 2019

This expedition obtained the first visual imagery and associated CTD and oxygen sensor data from six seabed areas off the coasts of South Africa, which included the two newly proposed Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) at Browns Bank and Robben Island, as well as a hardground site off Scarborough, a Southern Benguela muddy site and a heavily trawled Benguela Shelf area. At each station the SkiMonkey III towed camera system, with the MicroCAT CTD attached, was deployed off the stern of the ship from the plankton towing winch at a speed of 1 m/s until contact with the seafloor was made. Once on the seafloor, the system was towed behind the vessel at a speed of 1 knot for approximately 20 minutes. Following this, the system was retrieved and the data were downloaded and backed-up appropriately. Note that latitude and longitude information were only recorded at two points per station, when the system touched down on the seafloor and when it was retrieved from the seafloor (i.e. Start_Lat_DD, Start_Lon_DD, End_Lat_DD, End_Lon_DD). The download is divided into station level folders, within which the user can find ReadME documents describing the variables recorded in the data, a _StationLevelData sheet describing the instrument deployment, a _RawData file with data extracted as is from the instrument, and a _CleanData file with processed data as described in the metadata lineage statement.