Pink salmon age, sex, and length data from Prince William Sound, Alaska, 1997-2016

Age, sex and length (ASL) data provide population dynamics information that can indicate how population trends occur and may be changing. These data can help researchers estimate population growth rates, age-class distribution, and population demographics. Knowing population demographics, growth rates and trends is particularly valuable to fisheries managers who must perform population assessments to inform management decisions. These data are therefore important in valuable fisheries like the salmon fisheries of Alaska. This dataset includes length data on pink salmon from annual sampling of commercial salmon harvests in Prince William Sound from 1997-2016. Length was measured in millimeters, generally from mid-eye to the fork of the tail. Because pink salmon always return after 2 years at sea, the salt water age was set at 2 for all rows of the dataset to enable easier integration with ASL datasets from other species. This data package includes the original data file (PWS Pink_LenWt_Individual Salmon Data_ALLYEARS copy.xls), a script that reformats the original data file into a consistent format (ASL_formatting_PWS_pink.R), and the reformatted dataset as a .csv file (ASL_formatted_PrinceWilliamSoundpinks.csv).