This data set contains annual quantities and value for all seafood products that are landed and sold by established seafood dealers and brokers in Florida. These data are available on computer since the early 1960's. The quantities and values that are reported in this data set include the annual landings for the period 1976 through 1996. Monthly general canvass data are available for this period; however, the monthly data do not include information on the gear used and the fishing area. The gear and fishing area information is only available for annual summaries of the general canvass data for the landings that occurred in Florida and this information is in the Florida Annual General Canvass. See the sections on Links for the reference to the monthly general canvass landings.

Summarized data set of brown shrimp catch by grouped subarea and grouped depth from 2002 to 2011.

The Northern Shrimp Survey was initiated in 1983 by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC) and monitors the relative abundance (number of shrimp), biomass (weight of shrimp), and composition of the northern shrimp stock throughout the Gulf of Maine. The data give an understanding of year class strength and sex stage and maturity of shrimp in the population. The survey focuses its efforts in offshore waters (in depths greater than 50 meters) and is timed to sample both males and females during the summer when they are expected to be offshore. The data it collects forms the basis of the annual northern shrimp assessment, which in turn, is used by fishery managers from Maine, New Hampshire and Massachusetts to set each year’s fishing regulations.

Oracle Tables To Provide Boat and Shore Data which contains the object of this system is to provide an inventory of vessels that answer two fundamental questions: How many vessels are fishing commercially? What are the characteristics of these vessels? The vessel information (i.e., length, age, horsepower, etc.) is significant to identify accurately the universe of vessels to facilitate scientific assessments of annual fishing effort.The vessel information is useful for designing a statistically robust data collection program to canvass or randomly sample the activities of fishing vessels.

In the late 1800s and early 1900s a fishery for Red Snapper developed rapidly in the Gulf of Mexico. Shortly thereafter, recreational fishing for Red Snapper became popular wherever access was afforded to offshore waters. These developments occurred decades prior to organized collection of fishing and landings records. However, due to increasing library digital archiving, previous information regarding historical fishing conditions, landings, and size composition was available from formerly difficult to obtain reports, interviews, and particularly newspaper articles. Thirty-two newspapers from the U.S. Gulf of Mexico region were searched providing landings from 3157 fishing trips (93% commercial, 7% recreational) from the years 1874 to 1986. These records document increasing landings of Red Snapper early in the fishery with peak landings-per-trip occurring from circa 1900 to 1915 for U.S. coastal trips and from circa 1910 to 1930 for trips to Campeche Bay, Mexico. By the late 1920s to early 1930s there was evidence of fishery-impacts with reduced catches, decreased average size of Red Snapper and a shift to lower-valued species. Between the mid-1930s to 1950s, the Red Snapper commercial fishery expanded to the outer continental shelf waters off Louisiana and Texas in the northern Gulf of Mexico reaching the areal extent of the present day fishery. After World War II, technologies and exploratory surveys enabled continuing areal expansion and resulted in a period of increased landings from U.S. waters; most notably from the western Gulf of Mexico with peak landings occurring in 1971. Landings decreased through the 1970s and 1980s and reports of fishery concerns and commercial-recreational conflicts followed leading to the implementation of the Gulf of Mexico Reef Fish Management Plan in 1984.

The Southeast Fisheries Science Center Mississippi Laboratories conducts standardized fisheries independent resource surveys in the Gulf of Mexico, South Atlantic, and U.S. Caribbean to provide abundance and distribution information to support regional and international stock assessments. The reef fish survey is conducted primarily on the outer continental shelf of the Gulf of Mexico along topographic features (e.g. reefs, banks and ledges) between Brownsville, TX to the Dry Tortugas, FL. A two-stage sampling design is used with the first stage or primary sampling units being blocks 10 minutes of latitude by 10 minutes of longitude and the second stage being randomly selected sites within the blocks. The first-stage units are selected by stratified random sampling, with stratum boundaries defined by geographic region (4 regions: South Florida, Northeast Gulf, Louisiana-Texas Shelf, and South Texas), and by reef habitat area (Blocks < 20 km² reef, Blocks > 20 km² reef). Sampling is conducted using a video camera array, vertical line gear and chevron traps with approximately 400 video cameras, 400 vertical line and 100 traps conducted. The camera array consists of four housings positioned orthogonally and center mounted at a height of 51 cm above the bottom of the array. Each housing contains a pair of black-and-white Videre stereo cameras along with a color mpeg camera. Sampling of reef sites with video cameras occurs only during daylight hours, with the first gear deployment one hour after sunrise and the last gear retrieval one hour prior to sunset. Video arrays soak for 35 minutes. At sites selected for fish sampling, a chevron (or arrow) fish trap or vertical line is used to capture fish for biological samples. The chevron fish trap is constructed with 1.5-inch vinyl-clad mesh. In its greatest dimensions, the trap is 1.76 m in length, 1.52 m in width and 0.61 m in depth. A 0.4 m by 0.29 m blow out panel is placed on one side and kept closed using 7-day magnesium releases. The fish trap soaks for one hour and is baited with squid. The vertical line consists of a mainline with 10 gangions. One 8/0, 11/0 or 15/0 circle hook is attached to each gangion and baited with mackerel (Scomber scombrus). The mainline is soaked for five minutes. Most of the animals captured are measured, weighed, tagged and then released. Those individuals which are moribund or have expired are retained to collect biological data pertaining to the life history of these fishes. Habitat mapping is conducted using the SIMRAD ME70 multibeam echosounder. At each site hydrological data is collected using Conductivity Temperature Depth sensor (CTD).

This data set contains catch and effort for fishing trips that are taken by vessels with a Federal permit issued for the swordfish and sharks under the Highly Migratory Species (HMS) fishery management plan. Fishermen that own vessels with permits in these fisheries are required to complete a vessel logbook for every trip in which any species in the Highly Migratory Species fishery management plans are caught and landed. Fishermen are not required to report fishing trips in which other than these species are caught. However, fishermen are required to submit a no-fishing report if they did not fish for or catch any HMS species during a calendar month. In 1986, the Southeast Fisheries Science Center (SEFSC) initiated a logbook program for vessels that held a federal vessel permit to fish for swordfish in the Atlantic Ocean and Gulf of Mexico. In 1993, a similar program was initiated for vessels with a federal permit to fish for sharks that are included in the HMS fishery management plan. In order to provide sufficient level of detail for fishing effort by the longline vessels, the catch and effort data need to be reported for each longline set. Consequently, a single logbook form was designed for the fishermen to record the catch (numbers of animals caught) and effort, which includes data on the length of the longline, the number of hooks and the duration of the set. To reduce the number of times that fishermen need to record certain pieces of information, e.g., location of unloading, duration of trip, number of crew, a trip summary form was designed in 1999 that includes the trip-related information that is the same for every set. This redesign of the logbook form resulted in two forms, the trip summary and the set forms. Only one trip summary needs to be completed for each trip, but a separate set form needs to be completed for each longline set made during the trip. At the same time, additional questions were added to the trip summary form to collect information on the expenses that the vessels incurred during the trip. Initially, this information was voluntary and the fishermen did not have to provide the cost data whereas the catch and effort data are mandatory and the vessels permit will not be renewed if logbooks are not received for every trip where swordfish and/or sharks are caught and landed.

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. Available online as appendices: NOAA Tech. Memo., NMFS-NWFSC-110.

This data set contains multi-trip and single trip level quantities and value for all seafood products that are landed and sold by established seafood dealers and brokers as well as by the fishers themselves at fishing centers in the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. These landings statistics include all commercially landed marine species and are identified by species (usually the local or common name). These data are collected by field samplers employed by the Department of Natural Resources through a trip ticket program. The program also collects data on the number of trips, type and amount of gear, the fishing location, hours fished, and the fishing center where the catches are landed. Data for the individual trip reports are provided to the Southeast Fisheries Science Center (SEFSC). These data are formatted to be consistent with other landings statistics stored in the Accumulative Landings System; however, they are not summarized trips unless originally reported that way. By and large these are trip level data. The Puerto Rico codes are converted to the standard National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) codes. Not all fishers comply with reporting requirements. The amount varies from year to year. For this reason these data are subject to correction by dockside survey data obtained by the PR DPNR several times a year at various coastal locations. The surveys originally determined the number of trips at the location but since 2003 they have collected the total pounds landed. These data are applied to the reported data to obtain a ratio of reported/survey data which is then divided into the reported data to correct for under-reporting on a coastal basis.

These data represent 30 geographic areas described in Title 50 CFR Part 622 Fisheries of the Caribbean, Gulf of Mexico, and South Atlantic, Subpart A - General Provisions, Subpart I - Snapper Grouper Fishery of the South Atlantic Region, Subpart J - Shrimp Fishery of the South Atlantic Region, Subpart K - Coral, Coral Reefs, and Live/Hard Bottom Habitats of the South Atlantic Region, Subpart L - Golden Crab Fishery of the South Atlantic Region, Subpart M - Dolphin and Wahoo Fishery Off the atlantic States, Subpart N - Pelagic Sargassum Habitat of the South Atlantic Region, Subpart Q - Coastal Migratory Pelagic Resources, and Subpart R - Spiny Lobster Fishery.