| Summary: | Water column dissolved oxygen, fish CPUE and spatial distribution, and fish diet composition data collected in the NGOMEX during 2006 - 2008 were used to identify thresholds of bottom DO below which fish CPUE and diet (stomach contents) were altered. Hypoxia thresholds were then used to 1) examine the effects of hypoxia on fish CPUE; and 2) determine if diet composition differs for fish caught in normoxic and hypoxic areas for zooplanktivorous, benthivorous, and piscivorous fish. Samples were collected from the NGOMEX aboard the R/V Pelican (Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium, LUMCOM), with cruises on August 4-13, 2006, July 30-October 14, 2007 and August 1- August 11, 2008. Fish were collected using a bottom trawl (7.62 m head-rope, 3.66 m mouth depth; 38 mm stretch mesh; 12 mm cod-end liner) or a mid-water trawl (9.14 m wide, 6.10 m tall, 12 mm cod-end liner). Physical properties of the water column, including temperature and dissolved oxygen, were measured with a CTD (Seabird SBE 9 with a SBE 43 dissolved oxygen probe). To determine fish diet composition, a minimum of 15 non-empty fish stomachs per species were analyzed from each trawl station. This dataset includes an excel data sheet, a text metadata file, and an R code file, which replicates analysis published in Glaspie et al. (2019). Fish Diet Shifts Associated with the Northern Gulf of Mexico Hypoxic Zone. Estuaries and Coasts.
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