Prince William Sound Kelp Mariculture Development: Oceanographic Data at Multiple Kelp Test Sites, 2022-2024

These data are part of Chugach Regional Resources Commission’s (CRRC) Prince William Sound Kelp Mariculture Development for Habitat Restoration and Local Economy project. These data reflect basic water quality parameters collected at operational kelp research sites during the 2022-2023 and 2023-2024 growing seasons. These data consist of water temperature, salinity, dissolved oxygen, and turbidity readings from CRRC and Native Conservancy’s (NC) kelp test site locations. Samplers used Yellow Springs Instruments (YSI) water quality meters for temperature, dissolved oxygen, and salinity readings at the sites; for turbidity readings, samplers used a secchi disk. When YSI measurements were unavailable due to technical or calibration issues, salinity and temperature readings were taken with a refractometer and thermometer, respectively. Test site locations include two sites on the Western side of Prince William Sound, Latouche and Fox Farm and multiple sites on the Eastern side of Prince William Sound, including Simpson Bay, Sheep Bay, Port Gravina, Tatitlek Narrows, and Port Etches. Three, 100-foot long grow lines of three different species of kelp were outplanted at each test site. Species outplanted included sugar kelp (Saccharina latissima), ribbon kelp (Alaria marginata), and bull kelp (Nereocystis luetkeana), and three-ribbed kelp (Cymathere triplicata).