Prince William Sound Kelp Mariculture Development: Oceanographic Data at Six Kelp Test Sites, 2022-2023

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 growing season. 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 and four sites on the Eastern side of Prince William Sound. 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).