Prey fish returned to Forsters tern colonies in South San Francisco Bay during 2005-2015

Prey fish were collected at 17 Forsters tern breeding colonies during colony visits from 2005-2015. Prey fish were identified to the lowest taxonomic category. We present relative abundances by colony and year for each of the 10 major species groups. Unidentified fish species or rarely observed species were combined into an Other category. We calculated an arithmetic mean, standard deviation (sd), 25th quantile, and 75th quantile for dry standard length (SL; mm) and dry mass (g) for each fish species at each colony.

These data support the following publication: Peterson SH, Ackerman JT, Eagles-Smith CA, Herzog MP, Hartman CA (2018) Prey fish returned to Forsters tern colonies suggest spatial and temporal differences in fish composition and availability. PLoS ONE 13(3): e0193430. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0193430