A time series dataset of coastal fish community following a cold intrusion event in the Penghu Islands, Taiwan

Understanding variation of a community help establish useful mechanisms to mitigate the impacts of a disturbance. In late January and February 2008, there was a high mortality of fishes in the seas surrounding the coasts of the Penghu Islands in Taiwan due to an extreme low seawater temperature event. Here, we describe a time series dataset of fish communities at eight sampling stations along the coasts of the Penghu Islands using underwater diving visual censuses for seven years after the 2008 event. In total, 62 samples containing 24,278 individuals belonging to 277 species were recorded in the surveys. These data can provide information to ecologists and fisheries managers about how cold intrusion affected marine fishes and how much time the recovery of fishery resources is needed.