Net Sampling

Ichthyoplankton sampling is done on all survey cruises and processing of these samples is done at the Southwest Fisheries Science Center (SWFSC) laboratory in La Jolla, California. There, plankton displacement volumes are obtained for each sample and the fish eggs, larvae, and juveniles are separated from the invertebrate zooplankton, and subsequently identified, staged, measured. The resulting data form the CalCOFI Ichthyoplankton Data Base. The fish eggs, larvae, and juveniles are archived in the SWFSC Ichthyplankton Collection and the invertebrate plankton is transferred to the Scripps Institution of Oceanography Invertebrate Collection. CalCOFI surveys are the basis for NMFS research on the population biology of the major coastal pelagic fishes (Pacific sardine, northern anchovy, hake, Pacific mackerel, and jack mackerel) of the California Current System.