Micromesistius poutassou (blue whiting) abundance and biomass data in Bay of Biscay estimated from acoustic surveys (2000-2012)

Acoustic and pelagic trawl data were collected during various pelagic surveys carried out by IFREMER in May between 2000 and 2012 (except 2001), on the eastern continental shelf of the Bay of Biscay (Pelgas series). The acoustic data were collected with a Simrad EK60 echosounder operating at 38 kHz (beam angle at -3 dB: 7°, pulse length set to 1.024 ms). The echosounder transducer was mounted on the vessel keel, at 6 m below the sea surface. The sampling design were parallel transects spaced 12 nm apart which were orientated perpendicular to the coast line from 20 m to about 200 m bottom depth. The nominal sailing speed was 10 knots and 3 knots on average during fishing operations. The scrutinising (species identification) of acoustic data was done by first characterising acoustic schools by type and then linking these types with the species composition of specific trawl hauls. The data set contains nautical area backscattering values, biomass and abundance estimates for blue whiting for one nautical mile long transect lines. Further information on the survey design, scrutinising and biomass estimation can be found in Doray et al. 2012.

Processed 2 minutes-averaged continuous VM-ADCP (vessel-mounted Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler) profiles during POLARSTERN cruise ANT-XXVIII/3

This data set was obtained during the R. V. POLARSTERN cruise ANT-XXVIII/3. Current velocities were measured nearly continuously when outside territorial waters along the ship's track with a vessel-mounted TRD Instruments' 153.6-kHz Ocean Surveyor ADCP. The transducers were located 11 m below the water line and were protected against ice floes by an acoustically transparent plastic window. The current measurements were made using a pulse of 2s and vertical bin length of 4 m. The ship's velocity was calculated from position fixes obtained by the Global Positioning System (GPS). Heading, roll and pitch data from the ship's gyro platforms and the navigation data were used to convert the ADCP velocities into earth coordinates. Accuracy of the ADCP velocities mainly depends on the quality of the position fixes and the ship's heading data. Further errors stem from a misalignment of the transducer with the ship's centerline. The ADCP data were processed using the Ocean Surveyor Sputum Interpreter (OSSI) software developed by GEOMAR Helmholtz-Zentrum für Ozeanforschung Kiel. The averaging interval was set to 120 seconds. The reference layer was set to bins 5 to 16 avoiding near surface effects and biases near bin 1. Sampling interval setting: 2s; Number of bins: 80; Bin length: 4m; Pulse length: 4m; Blank beyond transmit length: 4m. Data processing setting: Top reference bin: 5; Bottom reference bin: 16; Average: 120s; Misalignment amplitude: 1.0276 +/- 0.1611, phase: 0.8100 +/- 0.7190. The precision for single ping and 4m cell size reported by TRDI is 0.30m/s. Resulting from the single ping precision and the number of pings (most of the time 36) during 120seconds the velocity accuracy is nearly 0.05m/s. (Velocity accuracy = single ping precision divided by square root of the number of pings).

Standardized geo-referenced catch, fishing effort and length-frequency data for the Indian Ocean Bigeye Tuna, Thunnus obesus (1952-2014)

Geo-referenced catch and fishing effort data of the bigeye tuna fisheries in the Indian Ocean over 1952-2014 were analysed and standardized to facilitate population dynamics modelling studies. During this sixty-two years historical period of exploitation, many changes occurred both in the fishing techniques and the monitoring of activity. This study includes a series of processing steps used for standardization of spatial resolution, conversion and standardization of catch and effort units, raising of geo-referenced catch into nominal catch level, screening and correction of outliers, and detection of major catchability changes over long time series of fishing data, i.e., the Japanese longline fleet operating in the tropical Indian Ocean. A total of thirty fisheries were finally determined from longline, purse seine and other-gears data sets, from which 10 longline and four purse seine fisheries represented 96% of the whole historical catch. The geo-referenced records consists of catch, fishing effort and associated length frequency samples of all fisheries.