WATER TEMPERATURES 

 OFF THE SOUTH ATLANTIC COAST OF THE UNITED 

 STATES, Theodore N. Gill CRUISES 1-9, 1953-54 



by 



William W. Anderson, Fishery Research Biologist, 



Joseph E. Moore, Analytical Chemist, 



and 



Herbert R. Gordy, Physical Science Aid 



ABSTRACT 



Water temperature data obtained during nine cruises of the M/V 

 Theodore N. Gill off the south Atlantic coast of the United States are 

 further processed and organized in a much more usable and readily 

 available form. Surface water temperatures by season are presented 

 graphically. 



INTRODUCTION 



A general survey of those waters 

 adjacent to our coast in the regionfrom 

 Cape Hatteras on the north to the Florida 

 Straits on the south was begun in 1953 

 by the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service 

 in cooperation with two other Federal 

 agencies and two State agencies. Nine 

 cruises over a basic station plan (fig. 1) 

 were completed with the vessel 

 Theodore N. Gill from February 1953 

 to December 1954. 



All of the basic physical oceano- 

 graphic, biological, and chemical data, 

 together wth procedures and methods, 

 have been published by individual 

 cruise; (Anderson, Gehringer, and 

 Cohen, 1956a and 1956b; and Anderson 



Note.--W. W. Ander5:oii, J. E. Moore, II. R. Tordy. 

 Bureau of Commercial Fisheries Biological Laboratory, 

 Brunswirl<, Georgia, 



and Gehringer, 1957a, 1957b, 1958a, 

 1958b, 1959a, 1959b, and 1960). 



This is the first in a series of 

 reports to further process the physical 

 oceanographic and chemical data prep- 

 aratory to a summarization of condi- 

 tions along the south Atlantic coast of 

 the United States, as revealed from the 

 nine Gill cruises. The data will also be 

 organized in a much more usable and 

 readily available form for fisher biolo- 

 gists in their studies of the fishes, 

 shrin:ips, and other organisms of the 

 region. 



Acknowled-^ments 



We appreciate the assistance of 

 several members of the staff of the 

 Bureau of Commercial Fisheries Bio- 

 logical Laboratory, Brxmswick, Geor- 

 gia, who aided in various ways: Jack W. 

 Gehringer, Mary E. Cobb, Eleanor Y. 

 Waters, Mabel Jo Knight, and E. Reid 

 Poe. 



