Dataset: MOCNESS Zooplankton data collected at the mid-Atlantic Bight Shelfbreak on R/V Neil Armstrong cruise AR29, R/V Ronald H. Brown cruise RB1904 and R/V Thomas G. Thompson cruise TN368 to the New England Shelfbreak in April 2018 and May/July2019

Zooplankton were sampled at selected stations using a Multiple Opening/Closing Net and Environmental Sensing System (MOCNESS) with a 0.5 m² mouth area (Wiebe et al., 1976). The first net sampled the entire sampling water column, and the other nets sampled at discrete depths. 

At each station, 3 epipelagic depths (shallower than 100 m) were sampled based on the CTD fluorescence profiles: the surface, the subsurface chlorophyll maximum, and below the subsurface chlorophyll maximum. All three depths were sampled with 150 µm-mesh nets for 2 minutes and an additional sample was collected at the subsurface chlorophyll maximum using a 100 µm-mesh net. 

A calibration was conducted at the end of the cruise consisting of two separate half-kilometer tows in opposite directions at 30-m depth, to confirm flow-meter readings with distance traveled. This allowed calculation of the volume of water sampled during each MOCNESS tow.