Physical Oceanographic Characteristics of Herring Nursery Habitats in Prince William Sound, 2010-2012, EVOS Herring Program

These data are part of the Herring Program of the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill Trustee Council (EVOSTC), project number 10100132-E, which is a multi-faceted study to determine why herring populations in Prince William Sound (PWS) remain depressed since the early 1990s. Past research of juvenile Pacific herring in PWS has shown that recruitment is highly influenced by conditions within nursery sites affecting survival within the first year. Important among these factors is the pre-winter condition of juvenile (age-0) herring and the effects of water temperatures on their metabolism. Studies of the physical oceanography of nursery fjords during the Sound Ecosystem Assessment (SEA) program indicate that each site has a unique set of hydrographic conditions that are influenced by both local processes and water exchange between the Gulf of Alaska and PWS. These factors vary significantly depending on geographic location, basin morphometry, watershed topography and proximity to sources of glacial water. This dataset includes the following: 1) temperature and salinity data collected by moored and profiled CTDs; and 2) thermistors strung at specific depth intervals on the moorings. The data were collected from 2010 to 2012, and built upon a 2007-2008 study funded by the EVOSTC (entitled Physical Oceanographic Factors Affecting Productivity in Juvenile Pacific Herring Nursery Habitats, EVOS project numbers: 070817, 080817, 090817) by continuing a hydrographic time series within the four principal PWS nursery fjords: Simpson Bay, Eaglek Bay, Whale Bay, and Zaikof Bay. The data are given in ASCII format, which can be read by any type of text viewing software, such as UNIX based Awk or Generic Mapping Tool (GMT), data visualization and spreadsheet software such as Matlab and Excel, and Microsoft programs such as Notepad and Wordpad. The data are in both raw and processed forms, the latter including quality checking, data reduction and averaging (where appropriate). The CTDs include an SB19plus for profiles, and SB16.03s, SB37s and an SB19.03 for moored data. Pre-cruise and post-cruise calibrations were performed on the instruments before and after program completion.