Coral Reef Ecosystem Research Consisting Of Biologic Data, LADCP, SADCP, and Flowthrough Data from Nancy Foster in Caribbean Sea from 2007-03-30 to 2011-05-07 (NCEI Accession 0273560)

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) scientists from the Southeast Fisheries Science Center (SEFSC) and Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory (AOML), working with scientists from the University of the Virgin Islands (UVI) in St. Thomas conducted a multi-year interdisciplinary research project using the NOAA Ship Nancy Foster to conduct biological and physical oceanographic surveys of the Virgin Island's (VI) bank ecosystems and surrounding regional waters. The long-term sustainability of fisheries in the VI and surrounding regions is dependent on a comprehensive understanding of regional spawning aggregations, larval transport, and overall larval recruitment in the study area.

This survey sampled water properties, currents, and dispersal and transport of settlement-stage larvae in the VI and neighboring regions. Data in this archival package includes: processed larval fish data collected from the various net tows (BONGO, MOCNESS, etc.) , processed data from all conductivity, temperature, depth (CTD) casts, processed data from all lowered acoustic Doppler profiler (LADCP) casts, processed hull-mounted acoustic Doppler current profiler (SADCP), processed sea surface, flow-through data collected with the ship's thermosalinograph (TSG) and fluorometer collected aboard NOAA Ship Nancy Foster during cruises NF-0705, NF-0805, NF-0903 NF-1001,NF-1002 and NF-1102 from 2007-04-07 to 2011-05-07.