On the FRV Southern Surveyor cruise SS3/90, 108 stations throughout the Gulf of Carpentaria were sampled for sea temperature, salinity, water depth, and sediment grain size. Data was also collected from the 1989-1990 "Jacqueline D" cruises and from commercial trawlers. Relevant rainfall, wind and temperature data were obtained from the Meteorological Bureau.

Nine cruises took place between 1975 and 1977 on chartered boats and the "Kalinda". Prawn larval biomass and densities were measured in several transects across the Gulf of Carpentaria, as well as total plankton biomass. These data are comprised of three distinct datasets: Total zooplankton biomass - see https://marlin.csiro.au/geonetwork/srv/eng/catalog.search;jsessionid=sisv4i7204pn13kfcrqfp7deu#/metadata/8c2dac2a-41ea-48ef-b917-cd0673f19ed9; Prawn larval densities (All Penaeids identified to genus level) - see https://marlin.csiro.au/geonetwork/srv/eng/catalog.search;jsessionid=sisv4i7204pn13kfcrqfp7deu#/metadata/638044de-7168-44d7-9390-4df74fef997c; and Prawn larval densities (Metapenaeus and Penaeus only, identified to species) - see https://marlin.csiro.au/geonetwork/srv/eng/catalog.search;jsessionid=sisv4i7204pn13kfcrqfp7deu#/metadata/cb69f468-a637-4366-b684-28eafc68bb16.

This dataset is the result of a series of trawl surveys carried out aboard F.V. Maxim between August 1983 and March 1985 in the NW Gulf of Carpentaria, north of Groote Eylandt. The main reference is by Somers et al (1987) - see References link below. It details the gear, methods, study area, etc. The data collected included abundance and size composition of the commercial species of penaeids together with data on hydrology at the time of sampling, across 60 stations. Reproductive stage, moult stage, and parasites were also recorded. Cruises were carried out every four weeks centred around the new moon period.

Megabenthos was sampled using a beam trawl, at 105 sites throughout the Gulf of Carpentaria during the Southern Surveyor cruise SS 03/90. The infauna was identified, counted and weighed. The results were used in pattern analysis of the communities. Data on sediment grain size were also collected.

Hydrographic data from six cruises, between April 1976 and March 1977 in the Gulf of Carpentaira are presented. Physical quantities (temperature, salinity and sigma-t) and chemical properties (dissolved oxygen, nitrate and silicate) were measured, and are presented in an associated report both as values at the stations and as contour maps. These cruises began in 1975 with the initiation of the CSIRO Tropical Prawn Research Project, a new series of Gulf-wide cruises undertaken to study the larval ecology of penaeid prawns. Approximately 70 stations were occupied on each cruise (with the exception of KL 7/76 which made only three transects in the southern Gulf). Two types of hydrographic stations were undertaken. Type 'A' stations consisted of Nansen casts with bottles every 10m from the surface to the bottom, sampling temperature, salinity, oxygen, nitrate plus nitrite, nitrogen and silicate. Type 'B' stations were Nansen casts with three bottles (at the surface, at 10m depth and within 10m of the bottom) sampling the same parameters as the Type 'A' stations. The sigma-t values were calculated from the temperature and salinity values, and the percentage of oxygen saturation was calculated from the oxygen concentration, temperature and salinity data. The difference between surface and bottom values was also calculated for all properties. The six cruises included: FRV Kalinda: KL 4/76 April 1976 KL 7/76 June 1976 KL 9/76 September 1976 FV Judy B: JB 2/76 November 1976 FV Raptis Pearl: TP 1/77 January 1977 RV Sprightly: TP 3/77 March 1977

This dataset contains raw sampling data beginning in 1989 for a long-term environmental and seagrass monitoring station in Laguna Madre (“LM-151”). This project served to understand environmental drivers of long-term changes in seagrass condition within the Upper Laguna Madre, Texas. Environmental parameters measured within the water column include water depth, dissolved oxygen concentration, underwater light level, pH, salinity, Secchi depth (turbidity), water temperature, total suspended solids, and dissolved inorganic nitrogen and ammonium. Seagrass biological parameters measured are above/belowground biomass and shoot density. Typical seagrass species represented within the data include Halodule wrightii (shoal grass) and Syringodium filiforme (manatee grass). Sampling was dependent on funding/resource availability and local weather conditions, therefore temporal gaps in data may exist. Data are provided in CSV format.

This dataset summarises 40 years of seagrass data collection (1983-2022) within Torres Strait and the Gulf of Carpentaria into two GIS shapefiles: (1) a point shapefile that includes survey data for 48,612 geolocated sites, and (2) a polygon geopackage describing seagrass at 641 individual or composite meadows. Managing seagrass resources in northern Australia requires adequate baseline information on where seagrass is (presence/absence), the mapped extent of meadows, what species are present, and date of collection. This baseline is particularly important as a reference point against which to compare seagrass loss or change through time. The scale of northern Australia and the remoteness of many seagrass meadows from human populations present a challenge for research and management agencies reporting on the state of seagrass ecological indicators. Broad-scale and repeated surveys/studies of areas are logistically and financially impractical. However seagrass data is being collected through various projects which, although designed for specific reasons, are amenable to collating a picture of the extent and state of the seagrass resource. In this project we compiled seagrass spatial data collected during surveys in Torres Strait and the Gulf of Carpentaria into a standardised form with point-specific and meadow-specific spatial and temporal information. We revisited, evaluated, simplified, standardised, and corrected individual records, including those collected several decades ago by drawing on the knowledge of one of our authors (RG Coles) who led the early seagrass data collection and mapping programs. We also incorporate new data, such as from photo records of an aerial assessment of mangroves in the Gulf of Carpentaria in 2017. This project was funded by the National Environmental Science Programme (NESP) Marine and Coastal Hub and Torres Strait Regional Authority (TSRA) in partnership with the Centre for Tropical Water and Aquatic Ecosystem Research (TropWATER), James Cook University. The project follows on from TropWATER’s previous work compiling 35 years of seagrass spatial point data and 30 years of seagrass meadow extent data for the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area (GBRWHA) and adjacent estuaries, funded through successive NESP Tropical Water Quality Hub Projects 3.1 (2015-2016) and 5.4 (2018-2020). These data sets are now publicly available through the eAtlas data portal: https://doi.org/10.25909/y1yk-9w85 . In making this data publicly available for management, the authors and data custodians request being contacted and involved in decision making processes that incorporate this data, to ensure its limitations are fully understood. Methods: The data were collected using a variety of survey methods to describe and monitor seagrass sites and meadows. For intertidal sites/meadows, these include walking, observations from helicopters in low hover, and observations from hovercraft when intertidal banks were exposed. For subtidal sites/meadows, methods included free diving, scuba diving, video transects from towed cameras attached to a sled with/without a sled net, video drops with filmed quadrats, trawl and net samples, and van Veen grab samples. These methods were selected and tailored by the data custodians to the location, habitat surveyed, and technology available. Important site and method descriptions and contextual information is contained in the original trip reports and publications for each data set provided in Table 1 of Carter et al. (2022). Geographic Information System (GIS) Mapping data for historic records (1980s) were transcribed from original logged and mapped data based on coastal topography, dead reckoning fixes and RADAR estimations. More recent data (1990’s onwards) is GPS located. All spatial data were converted to shapefiles with the same coordinate system (GDA 1994 Geoscience Australia Lambert), then compiled into a single point shapefile and a single polygon shapefile (seagrass meadows)

The major estuaries and their tidal wetlands of the Gulf of Carpentaria were impacted by mass dieback of mangroves in 2015-2016. To assess the full extent of the dieback and the major changes in the wetland areas, surveys in 2017 and 2019 were conducted along 31–37 major estuary mouths. Methods: The estuary surveys were conducted during aerial surveys using the same methods generally (see associated metadata record for more details: Gulf of Carpentaria Mangrove Aerial Shoreline Surveys 2017 & 2019 (NESP TWQ 4.13, JCU)). Shoreline edges were filmed and observations scored within a few kilometres of each estuary mouth. The observations recorded included a standard set of 10-20 features related to natural and human associated pressures like storm impacts, shoreline erosion, 2015 dieback of mangroves, fire damage, feral pig damage plus roads and buildings. Observations were summarised for each factor based on extent and severity scores to provide respective rankings of influence. These observations were further linked to respective likely drivers like sea level rise, storm winds, rough seas, plus the human associated ones of fire, pigs and weeds. The surveys collected observational data to classify the state, condition and health of the shoreline using criteria: 1. Driver type: list the drivers of change observed 2. Indicator: the indicator observed 3. Habitat: listing of the tidal wetland habitats affected 4. Extent: estimate the proportion of the tidal wetland affected 5. Severity: estimate severity of impact – time to natural recovery and effect on ecosystem function/structure 6. Time frame: when did the impact occur 7. Observations: notes and other comments These strategies were used to evaluate habitat condition associated with particular drivers, as well as providing an evaluation of local and national management priorities. The follow criteria were used to score the extent, severity and time frame (where applicable) for the criteria: Variable: Extent of impact on the tidal wetlands – The extent of tidal wetlands impacted determined by the proportional area showing impact. Impact extent assessment scoring criteria: 1. 1 – 10% 2. 10 – 30% - around 25% 3. 30 – 60% - around 50% 4. 60 – 90 % - around 75% 5. >90% Assessment metric: Extent score – extent of impact in the tidal wetlands Variable: Severity of impact on tidal wetland area – the severity of tidal wetlands impacted as determined by the degradation state observed. Impact severity assessment scoring criteria: 1. None – present but no observable effect 2. Minor – recovery within less than one year 3. Moderate – recovery over 1 – 2 years 4. Major – recovery over 2 – 10 years 5. Severe – recovery unlikely – collapse/replace Assessment metric: Severity score – severity of impact in the tidal wetlands Variable: Time frame of the impact on tidal wetland area – The timing of the impact on tidal wetlands as determined by the recovery potential observed. Impact time frame Assessment scoring criteria: 1. No observable effect, but potentially so 2. Current – now 3. Recent – less than 2 years ago 4. 4. Old – 2- 10 years ago 5. Very old - >10 years Assessment metric: Time frame score – time of occurrence of impact affecting tidal wetland area. Limitations of the data: Format of the data: This data consists of the survey assessment sheets from each estuary (xlsx) plus summary spreadsheets for each survey year. Each survey assessment sheet presents the original scores for Extent and Severity for each of the variables, as well as the calculations for respective rankings of influence. Note - The rankings of influence was used for the basis of the map visualisation by eAtlas, presenting the combined summary for each survey year as a shapefile. Data dictionary: 2019 Gulf of Carpentaria Tidal Wetland Threat Assessment Sheets: The extent, severity, time frame, restoration potential and other observations were collected for each of the following variables: Human Related Variable Driver Type:

Towed-diver surveys (aka. Towboard surveys) are conducted by the Coral Reef Ecosystem Division (CRED) of the NOAA Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center (PIFSC) as part of biennial Pacific Reef Assessment and Monitoring Program (RAMP) Cruises. These cruises support NOAA Coral Reef Conservation Program (CRCP) long-term goals for sustainable management and conservation of coral reef ecosystems. 12 towboard surveys (26.2964 km in length), were conducted at Rota Island in the Marianas Archipelago from 19 August - 30 September 2003 as part of RAMP Cruise OES0307. Towboard surveys are a good method for obtaining a general description of large reef areas, assessing the status of low-density populations of large-bodied reef fish, large-scale disturbances (e.g., bleaching), general distribution and abundance patterns of macro-invertebrates (e.g., COT, giant clams), and for assessing trends in these populations and metrics. A pair of scuba divers (1 fish and 1 benthic diver) are towed 60 m behind a small survey launch at a speed of 1-2 knots and a depth of approximately 15m. Each survey is 50 min long, covers about 2 km of habitat, and is divided into ten 5-minute survey segments. The fish diver records, to the lowest possible taxon, all large-bodied reef fishes (>50cmTL) seen within 5m either side and 10m in front of the towboard. Length of each individual is estimated to the nearest cm. The fish towboard is also outfitted with a forward-facing digital video camera to record the survey swath. The benthic diver records percent cover of coral and macroalgae, estimates benthic habitat type and complexity, and censuses a suite of benthic macroinvertebrates including Crown of Thorns sea stars and sea urchins. The benthic towboard is equipped with a downward-facing digital still camera which images the benthos at 15 second intervals. These images are analyzed for percent cover of coral, algae, and other benthic components. Both towboards are equipped with SEABIRD SBE-39 temperature/depth sensors set to record at 5 second intervals. Latitude and longitude of each survey track is recorded at 15 second intervals using a Global Positioning System (GPS) receiver onboard the tow boat. A layback algorithm is applied to more accurately map the position of the divers with respect to the reef environment. This algorithm calculates the position of the divers based on the position of the tow boat taking into account the length of the tow rope, the depth of the divers, and the curvature of the survey track. This metadata applies to the fish biomass observations.

This dataset includes CTD data released by Dr. Thomas Rossby, University of Rhode Island. These data were collected using a Neil Brown MK-III CTD system in support of Rossby's studies of Gulf Steam Meanders. Parameters include pressure, temperature, salinity, oxygen, fluorescence, and light transmission.