Pink salmon age, sex, and length data from Prince William Sound, Alaska, 1997-2016

Age, sex and length (ASL) data provide population dynamics information that can indicate how population trends occur and may be changing. These data can help researchers estimate population growth rates, age-class distribution, and population demographics. Knowing population demographics, growth rates and trends is particularly valuable to fisheries managers who must perform population assessments to inform management decisions. These data are therefore important in valuable fisheries like the salmon fisheries of Alaska. This dataset includes length data on pink salmon from annual sampling of commercial salmon harvests in Prince William Sound from 1997-2016. Length was measured in millimeters, generally from mid-eye to the fork of the tail. Because pink salmon always return after 2 years at sea, the salt water age was set at 2 for all rows of the dataset to enable easier integration with ASL datasets from other species. This data package includes the original data file (PWS Pink_LenWt_Individual Salmon Data_ALLYEARS copy.xls), a script that reformats the original data file into a consistent format (ASL_formatting_PWS_pink.R), and the reformatted dataset as a .csv file (ASL_formatted_PrinceWilliamSoundpinks.csv).年龄、性别与体长（Age, Sex and Length，简称ASL）数据可提供种群动态相关信息，用以揭示种群趋势的发生机制与变化规律。此类数据可帮助研究人员估算种群增长率、年龄级分布以及种群统计特征。掌握种群统计特征、种群增长率与种群趋势，对于需开展种群评估以制定管理决策的渔业管理者而言尤为关键。因此，此类数据对于阿拉斯加鲑鱼渔业等具有重要经济价值的渔业而言至关重要。本数据集涵盖1997至2016年，在威廉王子湾对年度商业鲑鱼捕捞渔获开展采样所获得的粉鲑体长数据。体长以毫米为单位进行测量，测量起点通常为眼部中点，终点为尾鳍分叉处。由于粉鲑在海洋中生长2年后总会洄游产卵，因此本数据集所有样本记录的海洋年龄均设为2，以便于与其他物种的ASL数据集进行整合。本数据包包含原始数据文件（PWS Pink_LenWt_Individual Salmon Data_ALLYEARS copy.xls）、将原始数据文件格式统一为标准格式的R脚本文件（ASL_formatting_PWS_pink.R），以及已完成格式统一的.csv格式数据集文件（ASL_formatted_PrinceWilliamSoundpinks.csv）。