Oceanographic data including conductivity, temperature, depth, dissolved oxygen, fluorescence, and turbidity, collected during towed-diver surveys from 2015-11-3 to 2015-11-18 in the Main Hawaiian Islands to assess damage from the 2015 mass coral bleaching event (NCEI Accession 0189254)

The oceanographic data included in this dataset were collected by the NOAA Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center (PIFSC), Ecosystem Sciences Division (ESD; formerly the Coral Reef Ecosystem Division) from November 3-18, 2015 with funding from the NOAA Coral Reef Conservation Program. The purpose of the two-week research cruise was to evaluate the impacts of the 2015 mass coral bleaching event in the Main Hawaiian Islands. A modified version of ESD's towed-diver method was used to conduct surveys around south Oahu, west Maui, Lanai, and west Hawaii island. The modified towed-diver method involved towing a pair of SCUBA divers behind a small boat for 50 minutes and covering a linear distance of ~2 kilometers per survey. Each diver was equipped with a towboard and attempted to maintain position ~1 meter above the surface of the reef for the duration of the survey. The oceanographic data was collected with a Seabird Electronics 19P CTD mounted to one of the towboards with two auxillary sensors connected to it, including a Seabird Electronics SBE43 oxygen sensor and a Wet labs FLNTURTD fluorometer and scattering meter. The data were collected continuously throughout each survey and included conductivity, temperature, depth, dissolved oxygen, fluorescence, and turbidity. A complete towed-diver survey includes ten 5-minute segments, with oceanographic data averaged by 5-minute segment to correspond with the visual observations recorded by the benthic diver. At the conclusion of the mission, approximately 90 kilometers of 15-m wide transects at depths ranging from ~1 m to ~13 m were surveyed.