SkiMonkey mounted MicroCAT CTD data from around Prince Edward Island on SA Agulhas II Voyage 024, April 2017

With the declaration on 9 April 2013 of the Prince Edward Islands (PEIs) as South Africa’s first offshore Marine Protected Area (MPA), the outcomes of this cruise will further contribute toward an integrated view and a better understanding of the functioning of the combined island/marine PEI ecosystem.This accession contains raw and processed SkiMonkey mounted SBE-37 MicroCAT CTD data collected from part of the Marion Island Relief Voyage on the SA Agulhas II Voyage 024. At each station the SkiMonkey III towed camera system, with the MicroCAT CTD attached, was deployed off the stern of the ship, from the plankton towing winch at a speed of 1 m/s until contact with the seafloor was made. Once on the seafloor, the system was towed behind the vessel at a speed of 1 knot for approximately 20 minutes. Following this, the system was retrieved and the data were downloaded and backed-up appropriately. Note that latitude and longitude information were only recorded at two points per station, when the system touched down on the seafloor and when it was retrieved from the seafloor (i.e. Start_Lat_DD, Start_Lon_DD, End_Lat_DD, End_Lon_DD). The download is divided into station level folders, within which the user can find ReadME documents describing the variables recorded in the data, a _StationLevelData sheet describing the instrument deployment, a _RawData file with data extracted as is from the instrument, and a _CleanData file with processed data as described in the metadata lineage statement.