These datasets contain information on contracted fishing trips for an exploratory analysis of the feasibility of a fishery-independent bottomfish survey in Guam. Fishing occurred in 2012 and 2014 on Galvez bank using similar research-fishing practices to the exploratory fishing surveys done in the Main Hawaiian Islands. The data contain information on trip, catch, and effort. The trip specific data contains information on fisher and vessel, observer (person who entered the data), the port trip started in, start time and day and end time and day of trip, the fishing area, and species targeted. The effort data contains information on fishing set up including the number of hooks, species targeted, rigging type, bait used, drift and anchor usage, and time spent fishing; as well as environmental information including wave height, depth, current and wind speed. The catch data contains vessel identification, location, date, the species caught and their length, and whether gonads or the head were saved for reproductive and age measurments.

Contains information collected such as: lengths, weights, sex, quantity, species, etc. from various bottomfish and pelagic species during frequent visits to the United Fishing Agency Fish Auction in Honolulu, Hawaii.

The Guam Commercial Fisheries Biosampling program, which collects length and weight frequency data for whole commercial catches, and samples 4-8 species for in-depth life history studies as well as DNA (finclips) and voucher specimens for the Fish Barcode of life, began in August, 2009. Guam has had very little market-based commercial size sampling over the years. However, the new bio-sampling program has been quite successful and robust, due to the cooperation and participation of the Guam Fishermen's Cooperative Association. Census sampling of a high percentage of the non-pelagic fishing trips has been conducted since late 2009. As with the other CFBS programs, catch, effort, and fishing location are recorded for a majority of the fishing trips and every fish or invertebrate harvested is identified, measured and weighed for each fishing method encountered with the exception of trolling. Life history samples are also collected and processed for a number of reef fish species. These data are considered confidential. Continuation is subject to availability of funds.

This dataset contains tagging data for bottomfish from research fishing and intensive tagging efforts around the Main Hawaiian Islands from 2007-2005 and around Guam from 2011. The data include information on tagging/recapture of the bottomfish for 2007-2015 as well as any separate recapture information for 2015. Tagging/recapture information include the fisher, vessel, location of capture in latitude and longitude, location by island or around an island, the tag number, date tagged, fork length of fish, techniques used to limit mortality due to barotrauma, species of fish, depth caught, and whether it was a recapture. Recapture information for 2015 include whether the fish was a recapture, and if so, the fisher who recaptured it as well as the recapture date, location, and length. The data were collected on multiple contracts over many years, and therefore each field was not necessarily entered for every event. The recapture information dataset has not been extensively QC'd and should, particularly information on length and location of first capture, of the recaptured fish.

Fishing operations that focus on targeting bottomfish (mostly juvenile opakapaka) that are independent of a larger research vessel, i.e. the Oscar Elton Sette.

This data set includes separate bioSampling logs from each LHP Bottomfishing cruise in the Hawaiian, Samoa, and Mariana Archipelagos as well as a master file with all records. While the data have not changed from previous InPort records (see Node 10806), this is part of an effort to standardize and streamline all life history program databases for past and future cruises. These data to NOT contain biosampling measurements for fish caught in non-cruise-related activities (e.g. fish acquired from auction).

The main market sampling program in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI) is the new biosampling program implemented in late 2010 on the island of Saipan. It is a joint Division of Fish and Wildlife (DFW) and industry project with a local environmental consulting firm doing most of the field work, data processing, and obtaining of life history samples. DFW is working up some of the life history samples for that aspect of the project. It is strictly a voluntary data collection system requiring ingenuity to obtain the participation of a large percentage of the main fish vendors on the islands of Saipan, Rota and Tinian. All catches are from the CNMI with some of them coming from up to 100 miles from Saipan. It is a census sampling program of 100% of the commercial harvest of a subsample of the trips landing during any sampling period. Due to logistics and resource limitations, the majority of sampling was initially (Dec 2010-late 2012) focused on the spearfish reef fish fishery on Saipan. This has since expanded to include information on the bottomfish fishery as well data from Tinian and Rota. Life history samples are also being collected on several species on reef fish and one deep bottomfish. These data are considered confidential.

These datasets contains information on fishing trips for deep7 bottomfish in the main Hawaiian Islands by contracted fishermen from March 2015 to November 2015 around Oahu, Maui, and the Big Island. Detailed information exists at the trip and station (fishing event) level. The trip specific data contains information on fisher and vessel, the port trip started in, start time and end time of trip, the dates fishing occurred over, and the species and size targeted. Information on depths fished, wave heights and wind speeds are also provided. The station specific data contains information on fishing set up including the number of hooks, species targeted, rigging type, bait used, and time fishing started and ended, and reason for ending. It also contained information on the environment including location, wave height, current, wind. The catch data contains vessel identification; station information; the date fishing took place; the time by reel that fishing started and ended; the species caught and their length and status; and the bait used.

Accurate and precise stock assessments are predicated on accurate and precise estimates of life history parameters, abundance, and catch across the range of the stock. In its continued efforts to improve the data used in stock assessments, the NOAA Pacific islands Fisheries Science Center (PIFSC) implemented a Bottomfish Fishery-Independent Survey in Hawaii (BFISH) in 2016. The BFISH survey utilizes two gear types, Cooperative Research hook-and-line fishing operations (CRF) and the Modular Optical Underwater Survey System (MOUSS). Survey sampling is conducted annually, typically in the fall, surrounding the Main Hawaiian Islands (MHI), in accordance with a stratified-random sampling design. Under this design, the waters surrounding the MHI are gridded at 500 meter resolution. Each grid is given attributes of depth, slope, and seafloor hardness. Depth categories are Shallow (75-200 meters), Medium (200-300 meters) and Deep (300-400 meters). Slope categories are Low slope (0-10 degrees) and High (10-90 degrees). Seafloor categories are Hardbottom and Softbottom. Annual survey data are processed to produce relative and absolute abundance and biomass estimates for the Stock Assessment for the Main Hawaiian Islands Deep 7 Bottomfish Complex. This dataset contains information from BotCam deployments conducted during the 2011-2015 methods comparison study, which led to the operation BFISH survey.

Morphometric data of fishes caught during deep-water bottomfish operations at Independent Samoa.