This project explores how oyster, blue crab, and spotted seatrout populations respond to human and environmental changes with the goal of improving the management of these economically and culturally important species.

The purpose of this project is to develop spatially discrete end-to-end models of the northern Gulf of California, linking oceanography, biogeochemistry, food web interactions, habitat, fisheries, economics, monitoring, and management into a common model framework. This framework allows for thought experiments, including evaluation of alternate management strategies, identifying robust indicators, and assessing relative importance of different ecosystem drivers in regulating important processes. NMFS personnel are conducting this work in broad collaboration with a consortium of Mexican federal, state, NGO and academic scientists. The specific work entails model development, scoping issues with stakeholders and policy makers, running scenarios, and analyzing and writing up the results. Products include peer-reviewed papers, presentations, and workshops with modelers and/or stakeholders. Management audiences include Mexican governmental bodies and conservation organizations. The project is an on-going, stand-alone project with no firm deadline for completion. Outputs of Atlantis model scenarios.

Coastal researchers, fishermen, fishery managers and educators teamed up to understand changes in shrimp populations in response to shifting environmental conditions in estuaries. The Project Shrimping has deep cultural and economic ties to the South Carolina and Georgia coasts, and the southeast US Atlantic coast region as a whole. However, over the past two decades, commercial shrimp landings have been highly variable. Fishery management agencies, extension offices, and several southeastern Reserves have identified the need to better understand how shrimp populations are responding to changing environmental conditions, including warmer winters and altered salinity regimes. To do this work, a diverse team with members from universities, fishery management agencies, fisheries extension offices, and Reserves came together to form the Lowcountry Shrimp Collaborative. The Lowcountry Shrimp Collaborative used a comprehensive approach to examine how environmental conditions in estuaries are affecting abundance and timing of shrimp populations throughout the region through examination of each stage of the shrimp life cycle. Together, the Collaborative: Analyzed and synthesized numerous ongoing, long-term (30+ years) datasets on multiple shrimp life history stages (postlarval, juvenile, sub-adult, adult, commercially harvested) and environmental conditions (water quality, including System-Wide Monitoring Program data); Conducted field sampling targeting shrimp and their prey in salt marsh creeks during spring and summer seasons, over two years, at three southeast Reserves; Ran controlled seawater laboratory experiments to understand the impacts of competition for limited resources between shrimp species during their overlapping periods of estuarine residency; and, Interviewed commercial shrimpers based in Georgia and South Carolina, to better understand historical changes in, and perceptions of environmental impacts on, the shrimp industry in the southeast US. The project found that estuarine water temperature is rising across the region, mainly driven by increases during winter months. Warming temperatures can alter the life histories of shrimp, including shifting body size, altering the timing of migratory cues, and modifying habitat use. These warmer temperatures are also resulting in longer shrimping seasons with shrimpers often able to continue harvesting well into January. These results were confirmed by observations shared by shrimpers, who joined for a project wrap-up event where the team presented results and engaged in lively discussions about research needs and opportunities for collaboration between researchers, managers, and the industry.

The Gulf of Mexico is one of the most ecologically and economically valuable marine ecosystems in the world and is affected by a variety of natural and anthropogenic phenomena including climate, hurricanes, coastal development, agricultural runoff, oil spills, and fishing. These complex and interacting stressors, together with the highly dynamic nature of this ecosystem, present challenges for the effective management of its resources. We analyze a compilation of over 100 indicators representing physical, biological, and economic aspects of the Gulf of Mexico and find that an ecosystem-wide reorganization occurred in the mid-1990s. Further analysis of fishery landings composition data indicates a major shift in the late 1970s coincident with the advent of US national fisheries management policy, as well as significant shifts in the mid-1960s and the mid-1990s. These latter shifts are aligned temporally with changes in a major climate mode in the Atlantic Ocean: the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation (AMO). We provide an explanation for how the AMO may drive physical changes in the Gulf of Mexico, thus altering higher-level ecosystem dynamics. The hypotheses presented here should provide focus for further targeted studies, particularly in regard to whether and how management should adjust to different climate regimes or states of nature. Our study highlights the challenges in understanding the effects of climatic drivers against a background of multiple anthropogenic pressures, particularly in a system where these forces interact in complex and nonlinear ways.

Estuaries are important in supporting much of the fishery production in the Gulf of Mexico, but this support appears to vary widely among different estuarine systems. The main objective of this project was to assess variability among estuaries in supporting fishery species and other abundant nekton. The project is part of a larger effort of the National Marine Fisheries Service Galveston Laboratory to develop a Comparative Assessment of Gulf Estuarine Systems (CAGES). The nekton abundance data summarized in this report are available at http://data.gcoos.org. This cooperative study with state natural resources agencies was designed to use fishery independent monitoring data and compare historical catches from 4.9-m and 6.1-m trawl surveys. This report provides an assessment of the abundance, length frequencies, and biomass of 14 species of fish and four species of decapod crustaceans that were either abundant in the samples or economically important. The most abundant species in the analysis include bay anchovy, Atlantic croaker, spot, and brown shrimp. Other fishery species of particular interest include Gulf menhaden, white shrimp, pink shrimp, blue crab, spotted seatrout, southern flounder, and red drum. While the years analyzed varied among states, samples from most estuaries were available and analyzed for the years 1986 to 2005. The 24 estuaries analyzed were identified using the Estuarine and Coastal Drainage Areas delineated by the U. S.Geological Survey and listed in NOAA's Coastal Assessment Framework

The purpose of this project is to develop spatially discrete end-to-end models of the California Current LME, linking oceanography, biogeochemistry, food web interactions, habitat, fisheries, economics, monitoring, and management into a common model framework. This framework allows for thought experiments, including evaluation of alternate management strategies, identifying robust indicators, and assessing relative importance of different ecosystem drivers in regulating important processes. NMFS personnel are conducting this work in broad collaboration with other NOAA scientists, academics, and NGOs. The specific work entails model development, scoping issues with stakeholders and policy makers, running scenarios, and analyzing and writing up the results. Products will include peer-reviewed papers, presentations, and workshops with modelers and/or stakeholders. Management audiences include NMFS west coast regions and the PFMC. The project is an on-going, stand-alone project with no firm deadline for completion. Published as Horne et al. 2010 NOAA NWFSC Tech memo 104, with full Excel data sheets: https://www.nwfsc.noaa.gov/publications/scipubs/displayinclude.cfm?incfile=technicalmemorandum2010.inc.

Fishery Independent Survey System (FINSS) is a national system that characterizes NMFS ocean observation activities, stock and ecosystem data collections during fishery-independent surveys conducted by NMFS Science Centers.

This feature service provides a summary of the bottom fish data collected in the Marianas Archipelago by the PIFSC Life History program. Specific data included are from PIFSC cruises SE-14-04 and SE-14-05.

To build communication, coordination, and information sharing among scientists and restoration practitioners, this project established a coastwide network from Baja California to British Columbia, the Native Olympia Oyster Collaborative. The project team synthesized past restoration projects, developed an experimental design for future research, and created educational and outreach materials that convey the importance of native oyster restoration on the Pacific coast. These efforts engaged communities in Olympia oyster restoration, provided tools to enhance future restoration outcomes, and strengthened connections among researchers and practitioners to support ongoing collaboration. This catalyst project was funded by NOAA through the National Estuarine Research Reserve System Science Collaborative to advance collaborative science. It did not produce any new data.

Data represent an example calculation of ecological suitability for Pensacola and Perdido Bays. Data used are publicly available and are presented as tables, figures and appendices in the published paper. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolind.2023.110896. This dataset is associated with the following publication: Smith, L., E. Reschke, J. Bousquin, L. Cheskiewicz, N. Ilias, J. Summers, and J. Harvey. Methods for a composite ecological suitability measure to inform cumulative restoration assessments in Gulf of Mexico estuaries. ECOLOGICAL INDICATORS. Elsevier Science Ltd, New York, NY, USA, 154: 1-15, (2023).