Dataset: Environmental sensor data from an underwater imaging system (ISIIS-3) collected on R/V Langseth (MGL2207 Jul 2022 ), R/V Sally Ride (SR2317 Aug 2023) and R/V Sikuliaq (SKQ202204S Mar 2022; SKQ202303S Feb 2023) in the Northern California Current

Location description: Six cross-shelf transects in the northern California Current, ranging from near the Oregon-California border (42.5°N) to southern Washington (47.1°N). Maximum depth of instrument is 100m or within 2-5m of the seafloor. A list of more detailed information about the individual transects is included.

ISIIS-3 was deployed from the research vessels via a fiber optic enabled winch towing system, and towed the length of the transect in an undulating manner at 2.5 m/s, undulating between 1m and 100m depth, or within 2m of the seafloor in waters shallower than 100m depth. A total of six transects (four in February 2023) were sampled, all during nighttime hours, with the longest transects split into inshore and offshore portions sampled over two nights. Each transect was sampled in the “tow-yo” fashion throughout the deployment of the instrument. Data were streamed to the shipboard ISIIS-3 computer in real time via a fiber optic connection through the winch. A program manager written in JADE took the input data streams from both cameras, each sensor, and GPS data from the ship, and wrote into individual millisecond time-stamped files. Data were stored on the shipboard computers on two 16TB drives, then copied on to individual 6TB external drives in duplicate for each camera. Individual files were written for imagery, CTD, GPS stream, voltage-based sensor readings (pH, dissolved oxygen, PAR), altimeter, and flowmeter.

See Schmid et al. (2023, doi:10.3389/fmars.2023.1187771) for more information on ISIIS-3 imager and deployments on these research cruises.