Growth and Energy of Overwintering Herring in Prince William Sound, 2009-2012, EVOS Herring Program

These data are part of the Herring Program of the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill Trustee Council (EVOSTC), which is a multi-faceted study to determine why herring populations in Prince William Sound remain depressed since the early 1990s. Age-0 herring were collected using trawl, cast and gill nets from several study sites located throughout Prince William Sound in November and March for three winters (November 2009 through March 2012), as part of the Exxon Valdez oil spill (EVOS) Herring Program (project number 10100132-D). The dataset is seven comma-separated value (csv) files exported from a Microsoft Access database containing data related to growth rates as an indicator of over-winter performance among young-of-the-year (YOY) herring in Prince William Sound. Herring were collected on research cruises at sea, frozen, and transported by air to the NOAA Auke Bay Laboratory in Juneau, Alaska for length and weight measurements and chemical analysis. The file named Custody contains field collection information. The file named BioData includes length and weight measurements, and the weight of fish stomach contents. The file named RNADNA includes the ratio of ribonucleic acid (RNA) to deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) contents of herring white muscle tissue, which were used as an indicator of the relative amount of energy individual fish were allocating towards growth (with higher RNA/DNA reflecting greater protein synthesis rates). The file named Diet contains the enumeration of individual prey items in herring stomach contents. Bulk stomach contents masses were measured for all three field years and individual prey items in herring stomach contents were enumerated and identified in the third field year. The file named ProxComp contains the moisture, ash, lipid, and protein content of homogenized whole herring as a percentage of wet tissue mass. The file named Bomb contains energy density measured by calorimetry, measured in kJ/g dry tissue mass. The file named Parts includes the sample identification numbers and the tissues types of any organs weighed.