MCR LTER: Coral Reef: Coupled Natural-Human Systems: GPS-enabled survey of fish in Moorea’s lagoons

This dataset includes counts and sizes of fish within Moorea’s lagoons, with more than 130,000 fish recorded between 2018 and 2021. In summer of each year observers swim through Moorea’s lagoons, observing a 5-m wide swath and recording species and sizes of fish encountered in every minute of swim (about 10 linear meters of sampling). The fish counts are limited to a fixed species list (57 taxa) which was chosen to capture most of the reef associated species targeted in Moorea’s fishery, as well as important herbivores. Only fish larger than 10 cm were recorded, a size chosen to match the small end of fish observed in the catch. The resulting counts were georeferenced based on simultaneously collecting GPS data. Data are presented here on the scale of a minute of sampling. This scale coincides with benthic data which was simultaneously collected but is presented in a different data set (EDI data package: knb-lter-mcr.4014.1) doi:10.6073/pasta/f1e4cbcd79ebbbb0b0cbb79ab2ff8901 These data were collected as part of CNH-L: Multiscale Dynamics of Coral Reef Fisheries: Feedbacks Between Fishing Practices, Livelihood Strategies, and Shifting Dominance of Coral and Algae (BCS-1714704) with additional support from the Moorea Coral Reef LTER (OCE- 1637396).