FishSOOP-notes

OceanCurrent - FishSOOP - notes

Understanding the plots

data finder data visualiser

The FishSOOP data set comprises a large number of closely-spaced deployments, very unevenly distributed. To help you explore this data set, we divide the data into daily, regional windows. To find data for your region(s) of interest, go to the data finder and navigate time until your region shows up as having data. These data finder pages also give a first glimpse of all the FishSOOP temperature data for the day, by showing the temperature anomaly observed by each deployment, averaged over 24h within depths of 0-50m.
To explore the temperature data within a region using the data visualiser pages, click anywhere within the relevant box.

The data visualiser pages have five panels, all of which show the FishSOOP temperature data from all deployments within a region during a 24h period. The downside of this approach is that sometimes there is too much data for one plot. But we think that more often, this is outweighed by the value of intercomparing the observed data with neighbouring values.
Left panel: The FishSOOP temperature observations from all deployments that day are shown as black lines. To get a sense of how 'normal' these observations are, we include the climatological average profile (as a bold blue line) at the location of the deepest FishSOOP deployment, as well as the average plus 1, 2 and 3 standard deviations (as thin blue, green and red lines - see key). The climatology used is the CSIRO Atlas of Regional Seas (CARS), the applicability of which, in coastal waters, is discussed below.
Centre panels, top: overlays the locations of FishSOOP data on a Sea Surface Temperature image. The colourbar for both SST and the FishSOOP 0-50m average temperature spans the CARS temperature range in the top 100m plus [-1 4] degrees at the location of the deepest FishSOOP deployment (circled in magenta, and listed in the panel key). Hover on the circled FishSOOP data to see the sensor serial number, maximum depth reached and the water depth according to GEBCO_2019. Click to go to the AODN thredds server to download data.
Centre panels, bottom shows colour-coded FishSOOP temperature observations vs time and depth. FishSOOP temperature sensors are attached to a wide variety of fishing gear, some of which go to the sea floor for several days, while others go to mid-depth for a while. The FishSOOP data does not include the total water depth so we add the GEBCO_2019 estimate of this as a horizontal dashed line spanning the duration of the deployment. See below for more discussion of gear types.
Right panels, top and bottom: These show the averages, within depth ranges defined by the top and bottom halves of the deepest deployment, of the anomaly of the FishSOOP observed temperature. These anomalies are with reference to the CARS temperature estimates at the individual deployment locations - not a single location for all (as used in the left panel).

data finder	data visualiser

The FishSOOP data set comprises a large number of closely-spaced deployments, very unevenly distributed. To help you explore this data set, we divide the data into daily, regional windows. To find data for your region(s) of interest, go to the data finder and navigate time until your region shows up as having data. These data finder pages also give a first glimpse of all the FishSOOP temperature data for the day, by showing the temperature anomaly observed by each deployment, averaged over 24h within depths of 0-50m. To explore the temperature data within a region using the data visualiser pages, click anywhere within the relevant box.	The data visualiser pages have five panels, all of which show the FishSOOP temperature data from all deployments within a region during a 24h period. The downside of this approach is that sometimes there is too much data for one plot. But we think that more often, this is outweighed by the value of intercomparing the observed data with neighbouring values. Left panel: The FishSOOP temperature observations from all deployments that day are shown as black lines. To get a sense of how 'normal' these observations are, we include the climatological average profile (as a bold blue line) at the location of the deepest FishSOOP deployment, as well as the average plus 1, 2 and 3 standard deviations (as thin blue, green and red lines - see key). The climatology used is the CSIRO Atlas of Regional Seas (CARS), the applicability of which, in coastal waters, is discussed below. Centre panels, top: overlays the locations of FishSOOP data on a Sea Surface Temperature image. The colourbar for both SST and the FishSOOP 0-50m average temperature spans the CARS temperature range in the top 100m plus [-1 4] degrees at the location of the deepest FishSOOP deployment (circled in magenta, and listed in the panel key). Hover on the circled FishSOOP data to see the sensor serial number, maximum depth reached and the water depth according to GEBCO_2019. Click to go to the AODN thredds server to download data. Centre panels, bottom shows colour-coded FishSOOP temperature observations vs time and depth. FishSOOP temperature sensors are attached to a wide variety of fishing gear, some of which go to the sea floor for several days, while others go to mid-depth for a while. The FishSOOP data does not include the total water depth so we add the GEBCO_2019 estimate of this as a horizontal dashed line spanning the duration of the deployment. See below for more discussion of gear types. Right panels, top and bottom: These show the averages, within depth ranges defined by the top and bottom halves of the deepest deployment, of the anomaly of the FishSOOP observed temperature. These anomalies are with reference to the CARS temperature estimates at the individual deployment locations - not a single location for all (as used in the left panel).

Introduction to FishSOOP

FishSOOP is an IMOS-funded program run by Moninya Roughan's team at UNSW. To learn about the program, please see the UNSW FishSOOP and IMOS FishSOOP pages. The result of this program is that every day, we are now making many more measurements of the upper ocean's temperature than ever before - accurately and economicly.

Why bother? Climate change is making it more and more important that we keep accurate records of the temperature of the ocean. But this is a daunting task. So scientists have enlisted the aid of the fishing community to expand on the observing programs run by IMOS and others. Why was this not done earlier? Because a few pieces of technology did not exist, or were too expensive. See the links above to see how the practical obstacles to fisher-based sampling were overcome, and how the program now works.

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FishSOOP program data processing

Technical details of the FishSOOP program are documented by Lago, V., M. Roughan and S. Caon. (2025) IMOS Fishing Vessels as Ships of Opportunity (FishSOOP), Real-time Quality Assurance and Quality Control Practice Manual, Version 1.0. Integrated Marine Observing System. doi.org/10.26198/sp0r-p448, https://repository.oceanbestpractices.org/handle/11329/2629.

OceanCurrent does not perform any additional editing of the data set. We show all data that are flagged as 'good'.

Revision history

XX October 2025: First exposure draft for SC approval. (Accessable only to those who have been given a URL by email)

To Do

revise/edit descriptive material above VL
present exposure draft to SC for comment MR
broaden domain to encompass NZ, S Pac (110-200E,55S-5N) DG
make edits depending on SC feedback on exposure draft DG
modernise website appearance and navigation (to match the rest of Ocean Current) RS
activate and monitor daily updating of data cache and website images and navigation DG
in existing OceanCurrent pages, e.g. 4h SST: include locations of FishSOOP data, with links to profile visualizer pages GSP+DG
make links in OceanCurrent front page and menus to new FishSOOP subsection, and publish news item announcing it (with some interesting usage examples) DG+MR
IMOS website and socials announcement MW
add more visualisations of FishSOOP data, e.g. monthly-averaged temperature (absolute and/or anomaly) DG, suggestions from all and SC

Favourites Gallery

Cold-core eddy off Byron Bay Cold core eddies are not always very cold at the surface. Oceanographers are more likely to infer their presence from seeing water circulating in a clockwise direction in an SST image (see top middle panel), or a depression of the sea level in satellite-based observations. The FishSOOP subsurface (60-120m) temperature anomalies in the centre of this eddy are about -2° C (see bottom right panel), signalling an uplift of the isotherms by about 40m (see slope of blue line in left panel). The deep temperature minimum of 18.5° is about 1.5 std devs colder than the climatological mean, suggesting that this is a moderately strong eddy.

Did the upcast sample the Bass Strait Cascade? Downward and upward-recorded FishSOOP temperatures differ by 4 degrees between 300 and 430m, implying that the water temperature changed a lot over a very short distance or over a short (just a few hours) time. Unfortunately, the exact position of the sensor is only known at the start and end of the deployment, so it is impossible to be sure which is the correct interpretation.

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