Shellfish Farm Fish and Crab Counts with Habitat Data from Puget Sound, 2017-2019

Karl Veggerby from the University of Washington compiled this dataset for a 2024 paper. It contains species counts and behavior classifications of nearshore fish and crabs from time-lapse underwater video, along with habitat transect data quantifying eelgrass and algae presence. The data was collected at shellfish aquaculture farm sites across Puget Sound, Washington, USA, during 2017, 2018, and 2019.

Use Cases

• Modeling fish and crab foraging behavior based on time-lapse video observations.
• Assessing habitat use by nearshore species based on quantified eelgrass and algae metrics.
• Analyzing the relationship between shellfish aquaculture structures and local biodiversity.

Strengths

• Data collection spans three years (2017, 2018, 2019), providing multi-seasonal observations.
• Includes both species behavior data from video and quantified habitat metrics from physical transects.
• Video recording followed a standardized protocol (2-minute clips every 10 minutes around high tide).
• Habitat transects used a systematic method (5 quadrat measurements along a 30-meter line).

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment for large-scale modeling.
• Last update date is unknown; freshness unverified.

Provenance

Source

University of Washington

Collection Method

Data gathered using underwater time-lapse video cameras and habitat transects with quadrats.

Time Range

2017, 2018, 2019

Geography

Shellfish aquaculture farm sites across Puget Sound, Washington, USA