The Kasten Core M144 KC5-6 has been collected in the central western Aegean Sea (38°55.545'N; 23°38.684'E) during cruise M144 from December 2017 to January 2018 on board R/V Meteor at 559.2m water depth. The 345 cm long, 30 cm x 30 cm Kasten Core was subsampled into cores A and B, each core representing the top 272 cm and a surface area of 14.5 cm x 14.5 cm, sliced every 1 cm. Core A and B have been analyzed for changes in otolith accumulation rates (OAR) and fish family composition, including Myctophidae, Sternoptychidae, Engraulidae, Gadidae, and Gonostomatidae, representing the most common taxa of the otolith record, and Other. Complementary data for core M144 KC5-6 has been obtained, including an age model based on 11 radiocarbon dates, planktic foraminiferal accumulation rates (PFAR) and downcore color scan. The record spans the last 11.4 kyr, describing fish dynamics, before, during and after sapropel S1 deposition, as discussed in Pallacks et al. (in review). Data has been collected to investigate the response of pelagic fish to the combined effects of oxygen and productivity changes during pronounced Holocene environmental changes.