| Summary: | These data are part of the Herring Program of the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill Trustee Council, project numbers 12120111-P, 14120111-P, and 16120111-P, which is a multi-faceted study to determine why herring populations in Prince William Sound (PWS) remain depressed since the early 1990s. The purpose of this study was to examine the genetic stock structure of herring within PWS and the connections to herring stocks outside of PWS. Herring were collected from 2012 to 2015 in eastern and western PWS, and several locations adjacent to PWS, including Southeast Alaska, Yakutat and Kayak Island, Cook Inlet, Shelikof Strait, and Kodiak Island for genetic analysis. Bering Sea herring collected from 2005 to 2008 were included as outliers. This dataset is a single comma-separated values (csv) file containing genetic information obtained from thirteen microsatellite loci and mtDNA cytochrome b (cytb) sequences. Genetic analyses was conducted at the NOAA- Alaska Fisheries Science Center, Auke Bay Laboratories in Juneau, Alaska. Analyses of the microsatellite loci show that allele frequencies of herring collections in eastern PWS are homogenous among bays, between year classes, and over years. Collections from Montague Island and Evans Island (western PWS) indicated a weak signal of differentiation from eastern PWS collections. PWS herring are genetically similar to herring east of PWS (Kayak Island and Yakutat), but are significantly different than herring west of PWS (Kodiak, Cook Inlet, and Shelikof Strait). Bering and Gulf of Alaska herring are highly divergent genetically.
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