open data ecosystem
Temperature to whales, surface to the deep, since 1949. Open and integrated.
Find what has been collected β by dataset, by species or by measurement, each with its own catalog. Every dataset page lists who collected it, its coverage, every endpoint, the licence and how to cite it.
Euphausiid species and stages from bongo tows
Ichthyoplankton β fish eggs and larvae from oblique and vertical tows and the continuous underway egg sampler
Metabarcoding and environmental DNA β ASV tables, eDNA-derived abundance and density
Midwater trawl catches of mesopelagic fishes
Phytoplankton counts by taxon or functional group, and imaging flow cytometry (IFCB)
Picoplankton and bacterioplankton abundances by flow cytometry
Strip-transect counts of seabirds and marine mammals along the cruise track
Net-tow zooplankton: displacement volume, imaged and identified taxa, decapod larvae
Dissolved inorganic carbon, alkalinity, pH and pCO2
Wind, air temperature, pressure, cloud, visibility, sea state and water colour from the underway METS and ship observations
Nitrate, nitrite, phosphate, silicate and ammonium from bottle samples; particulate and total organic carbon and nitrogen, nitrate isotopes, and trace metals (iron)
Temperature, salinity, density, oxygen, pressure and dynamic height from bottles and CTD casts
Chlorophyll a, phaeopigments, primary production (C14) and light (PAR)
No dataset matches those filters.
Every organism CalCOFI has counted, from the diatoms of the phytoplankton slides to the whales of the Farallon census, keyed to one accepted name so the same species means the same thing in every dataset. Search it above, walk the tree, or start from a dataset β every taxon has its own page.
Everything CalCOFI has measured in the water and the air above it β temperature and salinity from the bottle casts of 1949 to this year's CTD profiles, nutrients, carbon, pigments and light, the underway weather, the picoplankton counted by flow cytometry β keyed to one name across its datasets. Search it above, filter by category, or start from a dataset.
Latest release v2026.10.19 Β· 2026-10-19 Β· 25 tables Β· 375 M rows Β· DOI 10.5281/zenodo.23484176 Β·
schema Β·
query Β·
notes Β·
cite
One accepted name per organism (WoRMS; ITIS for birds) and per measurement, with its NERC concept where one exists.
Explore observations collected on the CalCOFI platform in the California Current Ecosystem, integrated across species, ocean conditions, stations and decades. One browser-native app over every ingested dataset, at six spatial grains.
StationsHexagonsCruisesRegionsSectionsContoursstudent contribution
One app, six lenses β stations, hexagons, contours, cruises, regions and sections β for one organism or one ocean variable at a time over the frozen release. The queries run in your browser (no server), every view is a URL you can share, every download carries its SQL, and feedback comes with an annotated screenshot.
Apps that each go deep on one grain β station, hexagon, cruise, or contour.
Discover what's measured at each CalCOFI station β station Γ dataset coverage (time, depth, observations, surveys) built from the integrated release database, with variable search and dataset crosswalk. Continues the 2026 UCSB student capstone.
Explore decades of fish larvae and oceanographic bottle data together β filter by taxa, depth and season over dynamic hexagon maps, time series and depth profiles. Superseded by the Explorer's hexagons lens (Ben, 2026-09-08); kept serving.
Cross-dataset observation explorer β compare coverage across cruises, datasets and depths, with shareable deep-link URLs. Superseded by the Explorer's cruises lens (Ben, 2026-09-08); kept serving.
Visualize and download CalCOFI oceanographic data in map, time-series and depth-profile views.
The ways to get the data: standards-based services and public cloud storage, browser SQL, and the R and Python packages that read a release directly. Every route reads the frozen release directly: no server to stand up, no credentials.
library(calcofi4r)
con <- cc_get_db() # latest release
tbl(con, "obs_env") |>
filter(measurement_type == "temperature",
depth_m <= 10)
import calcofi4py as cc
con = cc.cc_get_db() # latest release
con.sql("""SELECT * FROM obs_env
WHERE measurement_type = 'temperature'
AND depth_m <= 10""").df()
-- db-query: DuckDB in your browser, no server SELECT cruise_key, avg(value) AS temperature FROM obs_env WHERE measurement_type = 'temperature' GROUP BY cruise_key
# any dataset as CSV, JSON, netCDF β¦ https://erddap.calcofi.io/erddap/tabledap/
-- DuckDB, anywhere: the release's catalog
-- lists every parquet object it holds
SELECT * FROM read_json('https://storage.googleapis.com/calcofi-db/ducklake/releases/v2026.10.19/catalog.json')
Standards-based services, public cloud storage and browser SQL.
The R and Python packages that read a release directly.
Python package mirroring calcofi4r β query the versioned database releases with DuckDB and the CTD team's PostgreSQL working database, credentials-free via .pgpass.
The pipeline behind every release and the database tooling β the ingest workflows, calcofi4db and the schema browser. The documentation is its own door now, in the header, for everyone.
R package of database tools for ingest workflows β cloud storage, Parquet conversion, DuckDB management and frozen releases.
Also calcofi4r Β· calcofi4py Β· github.com/CalCOFI Β· the docs part on contributing data
Understand the sampling grid, the methods, the data definitions, the documentation and how to cite. The drawing is Line 90 as a section: one pin per data category, at the depth that kind of measurement lives, each a link to its method page on calcofi.org.
Read the documentation How to cite Sampling methods on calcofi.org
One book, five audiences
One book on the CalCOFI.io data system, in five parts by who is reading: use the data, understand the database, contribute data, work with the team, and the plan and the record. Start here picks your path from the index; every page takes feedback, and the whole book downloads as PDF or Word.
Where else California's ocean is observed: a statewide inventory of monitoring programs along the coast, and the baseline data around the planned floating offshore wind areas.
Statewide inventory of California ocean and coastal monitoring programs within 12 nmi of the coast β hex-grid coverage at 1/3/5 km, survey transects, discharger stations, bathymetry, monitoring gaps, wind energy areas, and marine protected areas.
UCLA Capstone Β· 2026 Β· Betty Huang
An interactive map for planning ocean monitoring around California's floating offshore wind areas β toggle Essential Ocean Variables and long-term monitoring programs to reveal gaps in baseline datasets.
SIO Masters Capstone Β· 2024 Β· Eliza Thomas
Apps focused on a single dataset or data source. Capstone and fellowship projects by university students partnering with CalCOFI.
Cross-shelf temperature, salinity, oxygen, density and fluorescence sections along every CalCOFI line, for every cruise since 1993 β drawn nearshore to offshore with no station picking, and mapped so you can see where each transect is. Opens on the anomaly against each station's day-of-year climatology (warmer or colder than usual, and by how much), with the measured value one click away. Flags each cruise's processing stage, and shows the uncorrected sensor series on cruises whose bottle merge has not run.
Visualize CTD casts β temperature, salinity, oxygen and more β by cruise, station and depth, from individual profiles to whole-grid maps.
Map pollutants in the Southern California Bight from the Regional Monitoring Program via SCCWRP.
Statewide inventory of California ocean and coastal monitoring programs within 12 nmi of the coast β hex-grid coverage at 1/3/5 km, survey transects, discharger stations, bathymetry, monitoring gaps, wind energy areas, and marine protected areas.
UCLA Capstone Β· 2026 Β· Betty Huang
Explore CalCOFI fish-larvae (ichthyoplankton) abundance over time and space β filter by species or habitat across seasons and decades, with trend, correlation, stability and spatial views plus CSV/PDF export.
UCSB Data Science Capstone Β· 2026 Β· Joy Chang, Abhijit Brahme, A. Senthil, Chengcheng Fang, Kaeya Mehta, Shenyi Jiang
Map-based discovery of what is measured at each of 115 CalCOFI stations, with live variable search and auto-generated ERDDAP, Euphausiid and ZooDB queries.
UCSB Data Science Capstone Β· 2026 Β· Nicole Xu, Aashish Krishnan, Qiongwen (Lucy) Cao
Marine mammal eDNA detections and visual sightings visualized against oceanographic conditions on the CalCOFI grid.
UCSB Data Science Capstone Β· 2025
An interactive TimelineJS journey through 75 years of CalCOFI milestones β from the 1949 founding after the sardine collapse to the NORPAC expedition, the 1957β58 El NiΓ±o, CTD sampling, and the first all-female research cruise.
CalCOFIβCA Sea Grant Data Storytelling Internship Β· 2024 Β· Anneliese (Annie) Adams
A scrollable story of hypoxia in the California Current Ecosystem and its changing oxygen levels over the past 71 years.
CalCOFIβCA Sea Grant Data Storytelling Internship Β· 2024 Β· Mallika Gupta, Anneliese (Annie) Adams
An interactive map for planning ocean monitoring around California's floating offshore wind areas β toggle Essential Ocean Variables and long-term monitoring programs to reveal gaps in baseline datasets.
SIO Masters Capstone Β· 2024 Β· Eliza Thomas
Personalized fish-consumption advisories for Southern California anglers β DDT levels predicted by species and catch location.
UCSB Bren MEDS Capstone Β· 2024
Spatial and temporal visualization of the CalCOFI bottle dataset β the first student capstone built on the database.
UCSB CCDSP Fellowship Β· 2022