International Pacific Salmon Data Legacy Database

10.21966/t1wb-y481

A new electronic archive has been assembled containing records of the data collected by salmon research vessels in the North Pacific Ocean and its marginal seas since the middle of the 20th century. Most of the data were collected under the auspices of the INPFC (International North Pacific Fisheries Commission) that existed from 1953–1992. It had three member countries (Canada, Japan, and the United States of America) that were interested, primarily, in determining the vulnerability of salmon produced by their nations to capture by high seas salmon fishing, primarily by the Japanese. The INPFC coordinated the most comprehensive international scientific investigation of the biology of salmon in the open ocean in history. As political interest in knowing about the biology of salmon on the high seas waned in the 1970s, the various agencies involved in exploratory salmon fishing expeditions have exhibited variable levels of care for the records of biological significance that were generated during this era. These data are important because they continue to form the basis of what is known about Pacific salmon abundance and distribution beyond the continental shelves. Contemporary and future assessments of change must be compared to these records.

In late 2024, the archive (Version 1.3.1) currently includes 50,832 fishing operations (position, date, catch, effort, SST) and 1,170,207 salmon examined (length, weight, sex, age, gonad size). Missing data in some fields are common. Much of the archive contains what had previously been transcribed into various electronic formats by different agencies at different times since the 1960s. The present effort was to develop a common format and coding system for measurements and observations that were shared in common by different agencies. Fortunately, scientists working under INPFC had established data exchange protocols and standards so much of the basic data about salmon was collected and recorded using similar methods.

Access and Use

Licence: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0
Limitations: • It does not (yet) include records of catch or biology of salmon that were taken as bycatch in non-salmon fisheries or research activities that were directed at other species (e.g. chinook salmon in trawl fisheries or squid driftnet fisheries). • Except for sampling in the Strait of Georgia in the 1960s, much of the 21st century coastal research trawl sampling along North American coast from British Columbia southward remains unavailable. • Except for infrequent joint cruises with North American scientists on Russian vessels or the NPAFC/BASIS program, there are no data from Russian national salmon research expeditions. • While much of the station/catch data from salmon research vessels has been transcribed, biological data from all commercial and most research vessel sampling by Japan is not yet available. • With few exceptions, the archive does not include variables that were recorded by only a single agency, or experimental sampling that was discontinued.

Data and Resources

Citation

Relationships

Keywords

Dataset extent

Metadata Reference Date(s) August 23, 2024 (Publication)
September 12, 2024 (Revision)
Data Reference Date(s) May 21, 1953 (Creation)
August 23, 2024 (Publication)
September 11, 2024 (Revision)
Frequency of Update As Needed

Responsible Party 1
Name
McKinnell, Skip
Email
mckinnell@shaw.ca
Role
  • Processor
  • Co Author
  • Editor
Responsible Party 2
Name
Langan, Joe
Role
  • Processor
  • Collaborator
Responsible Party 3
Affiliation
North Pacific Anadromous Fish Commission ROR logo
Email
secretariat@npafc.org
Role
  • Custodian
  • Point of Contact
  • Publisher
  • Rights Holder
Responsible Party 4
Affiliation
Contact North Pacific Anadromous Fish Commission
Role
  • Distributor
  • Owner

Field Value
Ocean Variables
  • Sea Surface Temperature
  • Fish abundance and distribution
Scope Dataset
Status Historical Archive
Associated Datasets
Associated Datasets 1
Parent or Linked Dataset Title
Opening the black box: New insights into the role of temperature in the marine distributions of Pacific salmon
Parent or Linked Dataset identifier
https://doi.org/10.1111/faf.12825
Association Type
largerWorkCitation
Maintenance Note Generated from https://hakaiinstitute.github.io/hakai-metadata-entry-form#/en/iys/jnK2pbrIzbMBHpSiUOi8XDUeev93/-Mw-3mEuvTSv_Y3PQjCu
Spatial Extent [[[-195.5, 51.77], [-205.0, 45.26], [-212.7, 40.09], [-216.6, 36.5], [-217.1, 34.21], [-163.0, 39.82], [-131.0, 47.32], [-136.4, 52.41], [-140.3, 55.81], [-146.4, 57.64], [-157.2, 53.68], [-171.4, 51.11], [-179.8, 50.33], [-188.3, 50.89], [-195.5, 51.77]]]
North Bounding Latitude 34.21
South Bounding Latitude 57.64
East Bounding Longitude -131.0
West Bounding Longitude -217.1
Temporal Extent
Begin
1953-05-21
End
2008-09-04
Vertical Extent
Min
0
Max
0
Default Locale English
Citation identifier
Code
https://doi.org/10.21966/t1wb-y481
Included in Data Catalogue
Included in Data Catalogue 1
Name
North Pacific Anadromous Fish Commission
Description
 
URL
https://data.npafc.org