Lesion data from fish collected off Terrebonne Bay, LA to the Dry Tortugas, FL, 2011-2014

This data set represents collections taken by demersal longline fishing gears in the northern Gulf of Mexico and West Florida Shelf. They include station location information, standardized fish catch data (numbers, weights, sex, length), PAH contamination levels determined from sub-samples, and photographs of fishes with unusual external skin conditions that were observed in longline cruises undertaken between 2011 and 2014. The 2012-2014 data were collected during GoMRI/C-IMAGE sponsored cruises. Data from 2011 are included because they are the subject of two papers published with data from them: Murawski, S.A., W. T. Hogarth, E.B. Peebles, L. Barbieri. 2014. Prevalence of External Skin Lesions and Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbon Concentrations in Gulf of Mexico Fishes, Post Deepwater Horizon. Transactions of the American Fisheries Society 143:4,1084-1097 http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00028487.2014.911205. Snyder, S.M., E. L. Pulster, D.L. Wetzel and S.A. Murawski. 2015. PAH Exposure in Gulf of Mexico Demersal Fishes, Post-Deepwater Horizon. Environmental Science and Technology (publ. online) http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.5b01870 More information about all data and photos can be found in the “Read Me” document included in the dataset.