IMOS Fishing Vessels as Ships of Opportunity (FishSOOP), Real-time Quality Assurance and Quality Control Practice Manual, Version 1.0.

Abstract

The Fishing Vessels as Ships of Opportunity Program (FishSOOP) is a sub-Facility within Australia’s Integrated Marine Observing System (IMOS) for oceanographic data collection using fishing vessels as Ships of Opportunity, run through the Sydney Institute of Marine Science (SIMS) and the University of New South Wales (UNSW), Sydney. FishSOOP operates in collaboration with the international Fishing Vessel Observation Network (FVON). This document outlines the recommended data quality assurance (QA), and data quality control (QC) procedures developed for FishSOOP. Detailed documentation is provided of QA and QC, including pre-deployment, during-deployment and post-deployment checks, and the quality control methods that are applied in real time, automated and delayed mode to ensure rigorous data collection, processing and archival of the de-identified data. FishSOOP uses ZebraTech Moana temperature and pressure sensors, in conjunction with communication deck units, also developed by ZebraTech, thus focusing the FishSOOP dataset on temperature, depth, time and position data ranging from tropical to polar waters. Details of data processing in Amazon Web Services and archival are also provided