The Loch Linnhe Biological Sampling data resource contains both biological and sampling information for 2011-2013. This is linked to the physical data collected at the same time which is available upon request from MSS.

During the 2011, 2012 and 2013 field seasons sea lice were sampled using plankton trawls at 30 trawling stations sampling for planktonic phase lice (following Penston et al. 2008, and described in Salama et al. 2017), and 9 sentinel cage fish (as used by Pert et al. 2014) sites to sample settled stage lice. This data can be used to provide an assessment of the validity of modelled outputs.??

The “plankton station information” contains all the technical information required to describe each individual station sampled.
The “plankton sampling information” data set includes the counts of pelagic stages of lice collected in the water column at each individual haul.
The “plankton data summary” summarises the sampling information by season.
The “sentinel cage station information” contains all the technical information required to describe each individual cage location.
The “sentinel cage sampling information” contains all of the counts of lice present on fish.
Product usage:
The recommended usage of these data is for sea lice dispersal model validation for the time periods included in the products.

Product update
14/05/2021

The file ‘Plankton_station_info’ has been updated to include the year and month with 1 row for each station sampled. Changes in the sampling location occurred in October 2012, previous version included the later station locations only, thus was incomplete information. This data set has increased from 29 rows and 7 columns to 170 rows and 9 columns. The October 2011 field sampling campaign had 19 stations sampled out of the 31 planned (due to constraints with weather).

The file ‘Plankton_sampling_info’ now contains 563 rows corresponding to each sample taken. A column for Depth (m) has been included. A number of erroneous station numbers 32-50 from May 2012 that have no corresponding station information have been removed, and data from 2011, all of which was missing is now included. This data set has increased from 449 rows and 15 columns to 563 rows and 16 columns. Please note the October 2011 field sampling campaign had 19 stations sampled out of the 31 planned (due to constraints with weather).

The file ‘Plankton_data_summary’ now contains 1 row per corresponding station which is an average value of that locations density per meter squared for nauplii and copepodids. The previous version contained 2 rows per station corresponding to the left and right side nets, and a number of erroneous station numbers 32-50 from May 2012 that have no corresponding station information thus have been removed from these data.

These data are, to the best of our knowledge, reflective of the information collated at the time, however verification is difficult given the amount of time passed and staff turnover.

References

Penston, M. J., Millar, C. P., Zuur, A., & Davies, I. M. (2008). Spatial and temporal distribution of Lepeophtheirus salmonis (Kroyer) larvae in a sea loch containing Atlantic salmon, Salmo salar L., farms on the north-west coast of Scotland. (vol 31, pg 361, 2008). Journal of Fish Diseases, 31, 877.

Pert, C. C., Fryer, R. J., Cook, P., Kilburn, R., McBeath, S., McBeath, A., ... Bricknell, I. R. (2014). Using sentinel cages to estimate infestation pressure on salmonids from sea lice in Loch Shieldaig, Scotland. Aquaculture Environment Interactions, 5, 49–59.

Direct inclusion of data.
Salama NKG, Dale A, Ivanov VV, Cook PF, Pert CC, Collins CM, Rabe B (2018). Using biological–physical modelling for informing sea lice dispersal in Loch Linnhe, Scotland. Journal of Fish Diseases. 41: 901 – 919

Salama NKG, Collins CM, Fraser JG, Dunn J, Pert CC, Murray AG, Rabe B. (2013) Development and assessment of a biophysical dispersal model for sea lice. Journal of Fish Diseases 36:323 – 337

Indirect:
Murray AG, Salama NKG (2016) A simple model of the role of area management in the control of sea lice. Ecological Modelling 337:39 – 47

Salama NKG, Murray AG, Rabe B (2016) Simulated environmental transport distances of Lepeophtheirus salmonis in Loch Linnhe, Scotland for informing aquaculture area management structures. Journal of Fish Diseases 39: 419 – 428

Salama NKG, Rabe B. (2013) Developing models for investigating the environmental transmission of disease-causing agents within open-cage salmon aquaculture. Aquaculture Environment Interactions.4: 91 – 115.
Acknowledgements
This work was funded by the Scottish Government under Projects FC11111, AQ0040 and FW0050. Thanks go to Marine Scotland Science colleagues and ships’ crews for their contributions to this multidisciplinary project, including Berit Rabe, Campbell Pert, Catherine Collins, Nabeil Salama, John Dunn, John Fraser, Stuart Wallace, Jenny Hindson, Michael Penston, Paul MacDonald, Bertrand Collet, Katy Urquhart, Lorna Munro, Sarah Weir, Kirsty Donald, Hannah Stagg, Maria Campbell, Jennifer Graham, Mai Ho-Bradley, Mickael Fourrier, Raymond Cargill, Jim Mair, David Bova, Michael Penston, Ian Smith, Matthew Geldart, David Lee, Dougal Lichtman, Paul Cook and Alexander Murray; Mowi Scotland (formerly Marine Harvest Scotland) for providing the smolts and their assistance with instrument and cage deployment and recovery; Scottish Sea Farms; the Scottish Environmental Protection Agency for providing ship time, crew and instrumentation; The Crown Estate; Argyll Fisheries Trust; Lochaber Fisheries Trust, including John Gibb at Drimsallie Mill Hatchery for smolt husbandry; the Underwater Centre Fort William; the Scottish Association for Marine Science for the use of their jetty; Castle Duart; Kingairloch Estate; Aggregate Industries Glensanda; British Waterways and their staff at Corpach Sea Lock; BSW sawmill at Corpach for moorings usage; Alba Sailing for slipway and moorings usage; Lochaber Yacht Club for slip way usage and Mr K. Malcolm for their efforts providing aid in obtaining data.