DOI: 10.24431/rw1k7d0
title: Annual Herring Migration Cycle, Prince William Sound Alaska, April 2017- April 2022

description: These data are part of the Herring Research and Monitoring Program of the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill Trustee Council, which is a multi-faceted study to determine why herring populations in Prince William Sound remain depressed since the early 1990s. The project is a continuation of Projects 14120111-B, “Tracking Seasonal Movements of Adult Pacific Herring in Prince William Sound” and 16160111-S “Annual Herring Migration Cycle: Expanding Acoustic Array Infrastructure”. Methodology and results from these two previous projects were used to perfect methods to acoustic-tag wild Pacific herring (Clupea pallasii) captured in prespawning aggregations, to document postspawn herring movements, and to expand acoustic arrays at the Gulf of Alaska entrances to determine fish movement direction. In Prince William Sound (PWS) adult herring disperse after spawning, however their movement patterns are poorly understood. The purpose of this study is to document adult herring migration movements between spawning, summer feeding, and overwintering areas, including movements out from and into PWS and to better understand factors that influence migration patterns including biological (weight, length, condition, age) and environmental factors. Acoustic telemetry is a tool used to track fish to understand more about their seasonal movements. During April 2017-2020 adult herring were captured using jigs primarily on their spawning grounds in southeast PWS. Captured herring were then sedated, measured and a small acoustic tag surgically implanted. Fish tagged in 2019 and 2020 also had a scale removed for aging. Tag life on transmitters was estimated at ~8.5 months for smaller V8 tags and ~26 months or longer for the larger, V9 tags. We targeted fish weighing &lt;100 g for the smaller V8 tags. In all 726 fish were acoustically tagged, including 714 on the southeast PWS spawning grounds and 12 at northern Montague Island (Rocky Bay). Detections of acoustic tagged fish were obtained over the period of April 2017 through May 2022 from a series of acoustic receiver arrays deployed throughout the Sound, including the southeast PWS spawning grounds, northern Montague Strait, Knight Island Passage, and the Ocean Tracking Network (www.oceantrackingnetwork.org) arrays located at the principal entrances to the Gulf of Alaska from Prince William Sound. Ocean Tracking Network arrays were deployed at Hinchinbrook Entrance, Montague Strait, and the four southwest passages (LaTouche, Elrington, Prince of Wales, and Bainbridge). This dataset contains 3 comma-separated values (csv) files: 1) the tagging log (HerringTaggingLog2017_2020.csv), 2) acoustic receiver detections across from April 2017 through April 2022 (herring_detections_apr_ 2017_apr_2022.csv), and 3) acoustic station names (region_station_names.csv). The files named HerringTaggingLog2017_2020.csv describe the length and weight measurements and spawning-state characteristics for each acoustic tagged fish. The file named herring_detections_apr_ 2017_apr_2022.csv are acoustic receiver detection logs containing the data, time, and location of tagged herring detections. The files named region_station_names.csv contains array location, station name, deploy latitude, deploy longitude, and deploy depth for the receivers deployed during this study.