Surface sampling data from merchant vessels, Coral Sea 1955-1960 (published data)

These data, reported in various volumes of CSIRO's "Oceanographic Station List" series between 1957 and 1962, comprise mainly measurements of surface temperature, salinity (as chlorinity), and (in later stages) phosphate from sea surface samples collected by the merchant ships MV "Tulagi" and MV "Malaita" on regular runs between Australia's east coast and New Caledonia via Norfolk Island ("Tulagi") and New Guinea ("Malaita"). Sampling began in 1955 and was still in progress December 1960, the last date for which data were published in this series. The merchant vessel sampling program was carried out at a time when the CSIRO Division of Fisheries had no dedicated ocean-going research vessel, as a means of acquiring information about offshore waters. In the volumes cited, similar data are also reported from the Tasman Sea, south-eastern Australian waters and Bass Strait, and the south-east Indian Ocean.