Tournament sampling for length weight data

Age and length frequency data for finfish and invertebrate species collected during commercial fishing vessels. Samples are collected by fisheries reporting specialist from fish dealers in ports along the northwest Atlantic Ocean from Maine to North Carolina.

This data represents the catch and size characteristics of fish parts that were collected for life history studies.

Little information has been produced since the mid 1970s about the roundscale spearfish Tetrapturus georgii (Lowe, 1840). The most complete species description was based on examination of four individuals from the eastern Atlantic. On the basis of detailed laboratory examination of 16 specimens, as well as fishery observer information and biological samples from an additional 49 individual specimens, we update morphological descriptions and key identification characteristics of this species for the western North Atlantic. Key characters include lateral scale morphology and position of the anal opening the scales having rounded and broad anterior bases with usually multiple posterior points, and the anal opening located a distance between 0.48 and 0.81 the height of the first anal fin.

Catch and effort data from recreational billfish and tuna tournaments.

Data set includes port samples of reef fish species collected from commercial and recreational fishery landings in the U.S. South Atlantic (NC - FL Keys). The data set serves as an inventory of samples stored at the NMFS Beaufort Laboratory as well as final processed data. Information that may be inlcuded for each sample is trip level information, species, size meansurements, age, sex and reproductive data.

The Biological Sampling Database (BSD) is an Oracle relational database that is maintained at the NMFS Panama City Laboratory and NOAA NMFS Beaufort Laboratory. Data set includes port samples of reef fish species collected from commercial and recreational fishery landings in the U.S. South Atlantic (NC - FL Keys). The data set serves as an inventory of samples stored at the NMFS Beaufort Laboratory as well as final processed data. Information that may be inlcuded for each sample is trip level information, species, size meansurements, age, sex and reproductive data.

Small-vessel Survey and Auction Sampling to Estimate Growth and Maturity of Eteline Snappers and Improve Data-Limited Stock Assessments. This biosampling project allows for the expansion of the underfunded field-sampling program at the Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center (PIFSC) in the Main Hawaiian Islands and allows the PIFSC Life History Program (LHP) to more fully develop existing cooperative research connections with regional fishers and wholesale buyers. Under this grant, PIFSC has conducted small boat sampling operations around Oahu to target juvenile eteline snappers, Pacific Islands Fisheries Group fishermen were asked to collect specific sizes of whole fish and bring to LHP staff for processing, and a buyer at the United Fishing Agency (UFA) fish auction was contracted to target large fish and intermediate lengths to fully supplement the field and fisher collections. Bottomfish biosampling data is queried often to identify size and temporal gaps for each species and sample requests are updated accordingly.

The Southeast Fisheries Science Center Mississippi Laboratories has collected standardized ichthyoplankton resource surveys in the Gulf of Mexico since 1982. Several surveys are conducted throughout the year and focus on different areas of the northern Gulf of Mexico. The spring survey is an offshore survey that samples primarily from the edge of the continental shelf to the Economic Exclusion Zone, while the summer and fall surveys primarily focus on the continental shelf. Typically, the fall plankton survey is selected as the source of larval abundance data because of its spatial coverage, as opposed to surveys in the summer which did not adequately cover the eastern Gulf of Mexico prior to 2008. Data from these standardized surveys were provided to the Natural Resources Damage Assessment (NRDA) to support assessment of the environmental impacts of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill which occurred in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010.

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.