2015 Data

This contains the final (processed) data and raw data from NF-15-02/03 conducted aboard the NOAA Ship NANCY FOSTER between 11 April 2015 and 02 June 2015. This was a merged research cruise combining the Larval Bluefin Tuna Ecology Survey (LBTES), Coral Reef Ecosystem Research (CRER), and Bluefin Tuna Ecology (BTE) field efforts for 2015.

CLEARANCE COUNTRIES:

Anguilla, Bahamas, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Cuba,

Dominican Republic, Haiti, Jamaica, Mexico, Turks and Caicos Islands

The data includes:

CTD: processed and raw data from all conductivity, temperature, depth (CTD)

casts (ASCII format)

LADCP: processed and raw data from all lowered acoustic Doppler profiler

(LADCP) casts (ASCII and binary format)

SADCP: processed and raw hull-mounted acoustic Doppler current profiler (SADCP) data from the completed cruise ship track (matlab .mat data file, .asc ASCII data file surface velocities only, and raw binary and ASCII files).

TSG: processed and raw sea surface, flow-through data collected with the ship's thermosalinograph (TSG) and fluorometer, covering the completed cruise ship track (XLS and ASCII format)

FISH: processed and raw larval fish (ichthyoplankton) data collected from the various net tows performed during the cruise (XLS and PDF format)

We extended our annual Atlantic Bluefin Tuna (ABT) larval survey to the western Caribbean, the southeastern Gulf of Mexico, and Florida Straits in an effort to determine the extent of ABT spawning in this region. Additionally, we used adaptive sampling methods to further develop a larval habitat model. This was done because Identifying the relationships between ABT larvae and physical oceanographic gradients will greatly enhance current understanding of the early life history dynamics of this species. This work will also provide useful information on larval bluefin abundance and distribution for the entire Gulf of Mexico and western Caribbean. We anticipate that this work will reduce the variance in the calculation of the ABT larval index, which should lead to improved stock assessments across the region.