Oceanographic data, including conductivity, temperature, depth, dissolved oxygen, fluorescence, and turbidity, collected during towed-diver surveys conducted from November 3-18,...

The oceanographic data included in this dataset were collected by the NOAA Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center (PIFSC), Ecosystem Sciences Division (ESD; formerly the Coral Reef Ecosystem Division) from November 3-18, 2015 with funding from the NOAA Coral Reef Conservation Program. The purpose of the two-week research cruise was to evaluate the impacts of the 2015 mass coral bleaching event in the Main Hawaiian Islands. A modified version of ESD's towed-diver method was used to conduct surveys around south Oahu, west Maui, Lanai, and west Hawaii island. The modified towed-diver method involved towing a pair of SCUBA divers behind a small boat for 50 minutes and covering a linear distance of ~2 kilometers per survey. Each diver was equipped with a towboard and attempted to maintain position ~1 meter above the surface of the reef for the duration of the survey. The oceanographic data was collected with a Seabird Electronics 19P CTD mounted to one of the towboards with two auxillary sensors connected to it, including a Seabird Electronics SBE43 oxygen sensor and a Wet labs FLNTURTD fluorometer and scattering meter. The data were collected continuously throughout each survey and included conductivity, temperature, depth, dissolved oxygen, fluorescence, and turbidity. A complete towed-diver survey includes ten 5-minute segments, with oceanographic data averaged by 5-minute segment to correspond with the visual observations recorded by the benthic diver. At the conclusion of the mission, approximately 90 kilometers of 15-m wide transects at depths ranging from ~1 m to ~13 m were surveyed.

The 2014–2015 global coral bleaching event brought widespread and severe impacts to the entire Hawaiian archipelago. In 2015, the corals of the Main Hawaiian Islands were subjected to unprecedented levels of thermal stress that resulted in the most severe coral bleaching ever recorded in the islands. To document the event, local researchers and reef managers conducted free-swimming diver surveys in areas generally accessible via same-day field excursions. In an effort to survey larger high coral cover areas that are not as accessible, the Ecosystem Sciences Division at the Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center led a two-week research cruise in November 2015 aboard the NOAA Ship Hi‘ialaka‘i to evaluate the impacts of the 2015 coral bleaching event in the Main Hawaiian Islands.

Publication to be submitted to PIFSC Editorial for review by August 2019

Dataset submitted to NCEI May 2019

Dataset includes field metadata and oceanographic parameters collected during towed-diver surveys and processed to the segment level (5-minute observation). Oceanographic data include mean and standard deviation of pressure, depth, temperature, conductivity, salinity, oxygen saturation and concentration, fluorescence, and turbidity.

While every effort has been made to ensure that these data are accurate and reliable within the limits of the current state of the art, NOAA cannot assume liability for any damages caused by errors or omissions in the data, nor as a result of the failure of the data to function on a particular system. NOAA makes no warranty, expressed or implied, nor does the fact of distribution constitute such a warranty.

Main Hawaiian Islands, including Hawaii, Maui, Lanai, and Oahu islands.

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NOAA Coral Reef Ecosystem Program (CREP) Data Sharing Recommendations, version 9.0 updated August 12, 2015:

CREP welcomes the opportunity to collaborate on research issues contributing to the scientific basis for better management of marine ecosystems. CREP has a very diverse set of field activities that generates large volumes of data using an array of data collection protocols.

The following recommendations are for your consideration as you use this data:

1) Data analyses should take all field exigencies into account. The most effective way to do this would be active collaboration with CREP principal investigators.

2) In all presentations, product releases, or publications using data generated by CREP, proper acknowledgement of both CREP and the individuals responsible for data collection is expected. Citing the DOI (if available) is preferred, a non-DOI example is listed below.

3) If you collect or generate data for the same study areas, CREP requests that you share relevant information on complimentary data collections.

4) Those receiving data are strongly urged to inform the CREP Data Management Team of any errors and discrepancies that are discovered during the course of using these data. They are further urged to bring to the attention of the Team all problems and difficulties encountered in using these data. This information is necessary in order to improve the collections and to facilitate more efficient and economical data processing and retrieval. The users are asked to supply copies of any missing data that may be located, and to provide information as to significant subsets and special aggregations of data that are developed in using the material provided.

Example citation:

"This publication makes use of data products provided by the Ecosystem Sciences Division (ESD), Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center (PIFSC), National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), with funding support from the NOAA Coral Reef Conservation Program (CRCP). The analysis and interpretations presented here are solely that of the current authors.”

Data can be accessed online via the NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI) Ocean Archive.

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Please cite PIFSC Ecosystem Sciences Division (ESD) when using the data.

Suggested citation:

Ecosystem Sciences Division; Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center, 2019: Oceanographic data, including conductivity, temperature, depth, dissolved oxygen, fluorescence, and turbidity, collected during towed-diver surveys conducted from November 3-18, 2015 in the Main Hawaiian Islands to assess damage from the 2015 mass coral bleaching event, https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/inport/item/32586.

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Oceanographic measurements were averaged by each 5-min segment of the tow survey.

Standard deviation, in addition to each mean value, is provided for each metric.

This survey effort specifically targeted areas of known high coral coverage to evaluate bleaching impact. Although efforts are made to include broad spatial coverage of surveys at each island, weather conditions prevented the team from surveying various exposed reef areas.

Observations, including species identification and coverage area estimates were periodically checked during the expedition for consistency between divers. Data entry was usually conducted on the same day as the surveys using MS Access. Data was quality controlled by the divers using a two-person system. The data was then run through rigorous quality control checks by the data management team before the data was migrated to the Oracle database. Given the size of the data set, there remains some possibility of typographical or other errors.

NOAA IRC and NOAA Fisheries ITS resources and assets.

Modified towed-diver survey methodology to collect benthic observations, images, and oceanographic data around the main Hawaiian Islands to be used to assess impacts from the 2015 mass coral bleaching event.