Concentrations of Gulf menhaden (Brevoortia patronus) larvae collected during Fisheries Oceanography of Coastal Alabama (FOCAL) surveys off the coast of Alabama (2006-2008)

The Fisheries Oceanography of Coastal Alabama (FOCAL) program began in 2004 as a way for scientists at Dauphin Island Sea Lab (DISL) to provide baseline biological information on a proposed liquefied natural gas facility located 11 miles south of Dauphin Island. Over time, and with additional funding from the State of Alabama's Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (ADCNR), Marine Resources Division (MRD), the study expanded to include the waters of Mobile Bay extending south approximately 23 miles from the original study site. The FOCAL data set provides a six year baseline of natural variability of the nearshore system. FOCAL's purpose is to capture and understand the highly variable nature of Alabama's nearshore environment as it relates to fisheries production. It is a system influenced and driven, in varying degrees, by freshwater from the Mobile-Tensaw River system, saline waters of the Loop Current, and mixing from weather events. Perturbation of the system also comes in many forms and at many spatial and temporal scales: tropical storms and hurricanes, oil and gas operations, maritime accidents, and climate variability. Separating the effects of perturbation on fisheries from the natural "noise" of the system is an arduous task. Without long-term, baseline fisheries-independent data, capturing and quantifying those effects becomes almost impossible. The FOCAL time series includes hydrographic data from a permanent offshore mooring (ADCP, vertical thermister and CTD array) and shipboard surveys (vertical CTD profiles), as well as monthly ichthyoplankton and zooplankton (depth-discrete) sample collections at FOCAL sites. The subset of data presented here reflect the concentrations of Gulf menhaden (Brevoortia patronus) collected during FOCAL surveys.