Table of Contents

• Dataset Description
  • Methods & Sampling
  • Data Processing Description
• Data Files
• Parameters
• Instruments
• Deployments
• Project Information
• Program Information
• Funding

Principle objectives of the US GLOBEC Georges Bank Program were to study the composition of the larval fish community on Georges Bank, to define larval fish distribution across the Bank and within the water column, to determine those factors which influence their vertical distribution, and to determine bank-wide versus "Patch-Study" mortality and growth rates.  Emphasis is on Atlantic cod (Gadus morhua) and haddock (Melanogrammus aeglefinus) larvae along with their predators and prey.  This study also includes larval distribution and abudance, analysis of feeding habits, and age and growth determination.  These objectives were implemented through the use of bongo nets and MOCNESS tows to make the animal collections.

GLOBEC Fish Larvae were collected by Bongo nets.  In some cruises nets were equiped with digital flow meters suspended in the mouth of the net and conductivity/temperature/depth measuring packages attached above the bongo.

BCO-DMO Processing Notes:

• fishlarvae_M1 contains data from MOCNESS tows
• fishlarvae_Bon_pro contains Bongo data from process cruises only
• fishlarvae_Bon_bss contains Bongo data from broadscale cruises only

Additional edits to this dataset, fishlarvae_Bon_bss:

-Stations with redundant entries were compared to the eventlog for the cruise and, where needed, lat/lon values were edited to a consistent precision for all positions taken at the same date/time.

- Two stations (6 and 36.5) in deployment EN282 in fishlarvae_Bon_bss contained identical information for station lat/lon, time, depth, avg sal, etc. but different day and yrday.  When validated against other files' station information at the same location, time, etc. the day and yrday were corrected (fishlarvaeB and the eventlog for EN282 were used to validate):
     Station 6: day 12, yrday0 102  was edited day 11, yrday0 101
     Station 36.5:  day 19, yrday0 109  was edited to day 18, yrday0 108

- Edited precision for sal_avg, temp_avg, sigma_t_avg to three decimals.

- Edited values of 99 for sal_avg, temp_avg, sigma_t_avg to "nd".

- Parameter names were edited to adhere to BCO-DMO and GLOBEC convention, of particular note:

• Tow was edited at the request of the PI.  Station and not station_std was used due to the fact that some stations correspond to GLOBEC GB standard station numbers.  However, some do not.  Within the GLOBEC context, standard station numbers were reserved for specific stations with exact locations where core survey measurements were carried out (please refer to http://globec.whoi.edu/globec-dir/protocol-bs-stations-1996.html).  The DMO prefers to reserve the 'standard' label for the above defined stations.

The U.S. GLOBEC Georges Bank Program is a large multi- disciplinary multi-year oceanographic effort. The proximate goal is to understand the population dynamics of key species on the Bank - Cod, Haddock, and two species of zooplankton (Calanus finmarchicus and Pseudocalanus) - in terms of their coupling to the physical environment and in terms of their predators and prey. The ultimate goal is to be able to predict changes in the distribution and abundance of these species as a result of changes in their physical and biotic environment as well as to anticipate how their populations might respond to climate change.

The effort is substantial, requiring broad-scale surveys of the entire Bank, and process studies which focus both on the links between the target species and their physical environment, and the determination of fundamental aspects of these species' life history (birth rates, growth rates, death rates, etc).

Equally important are the modelling efforts that are ongoing which seek to provide realistic predictions of the flow field and which utilize the life history information to produce an integrated view of the dynamics of the populations.

The U.S. GLOBEC Georges Bank Executive Committee (EXCO) provides program leadership and effective communication with the funding agencies.

U.S. GLOBEC (GLOBal ocean ECosystems dynamics) is a research program organized by oceanographers and fisheries scientists to address the question of how global climate change may affect the abundance and production of animals in the sea.

The U.S. GLOBEC Program currently had major research efforts underway in the Georges Bank / Northwest Atlantic Region, and the Northeast Pacific (with components in the California Current and in the Coastal Gulf of Alaska). U.S. GLOBEC was a major contributor to International GLOBEC efforts in the Southern Ocean and Western Antarctic Peninsula (WAP).