This study involves analysis of skeletal growth marks in humerus bones of 333 Kemps ridley sea turtles stranded dead along the Gulf of Mexico US coast (hatchling to adult) and provides age, growth rate, and stage duration estimates

Juvenile rockfish were observed amongst coral, sponge, cobble, and gravel habitats. Rockfish utilized coral habitats more than any other, while gravel was the least utilized. Sponge and cobble habitat utilization was intermediate to coral and gravel. Predation of young-of-the-year rockfish by sculpin predators was greatest in gravel habitats and lowest in coral habitats.

This data set contains Excel and CSV files containing fish length of Juvenile Reeffish. Trawls were made during the summer months in shallow seagrass beds to monitor the number and species of juvenile snapper using the grass as a nursery.

To survey immature sea turtles that inhabit the Ten Thousand Islands. Program funding came from South Florida Ecosystem Restoration. This project provided base-line data on the distribution and abundance of threatened and endangered sea turtles prior to the proposed redirection of Everglades fresh water flow. Tagging data are located on hard copy and electronic versions on CD. They are not posted on the host server. A condensed version of these data was also submitted to the Cooperative Marine Turtle Tagging Data Base (CMTTP) administered by the University of Florida, Gainesville, FL.

The database contains monthly measurements taken on captive reared sea turtles. Measurements include: straight carapace length nuchal notch to carapace tip, straight carapace width maximum width, body depth maximum, weight.

The database is a summary of sea turtles that are hook and line captured by recreational anglers in the region covered by the NOAA Galveston Laboratory through its work as the local representative of the Southeast Fisheries Science Centers Sea Turtle Stranding and Salvage Network. The database cotains: morphometric data on sea turtles caught type of gear on which sea turtle was caught whether the sea turtle was rehabilitated and released or died tag information.

The objectives of this project are to use novel satellite tracking methods to provide improved estimation of threats at foraging areas and along migration routes for oceanic stage sea turtles in the Northeast Distant Region of the Atlantic Ocean (NED) and to characterize the in-water habitats used by small, oceanic stage loggerheads (Caretta caretta) so that we better understand the features that likely define their nursery habitats and the potential risks and hazards to the smallest life stages of sea turtle. To accomplish these objectives, our strategy included collaborating with cooperative fishermen in the NED to capture and satellite tag small (30 cm length) loggerhead sea turtles. Using novel satellite telemetry techniques, we were to identify the fine-scale habitat selection, movements, and dispersal of small oceanic loggerheads in the NED.

Early benthic stage American lobsters, Homarus americanus, were held in a pilot nursery system in Long Island Sound (LIS) to test field grow-out, as a step toward potential stock enhancement. A larger size upon release may increase the probability of survival. Lobsters were placed individually in perforated plastic mesh cylindrical "habitats" and each habitat was housed in an outer protective sleeve with a larger mesh size. During June 2013, twenty-four lobsters were transferred to each of 3 wire-mesh cages and deployed southwest of Charles Island in Milford, Connecticut (N=3). The only source of nutrition was naturally occurring organisms. Cages were retrieved monthly and lobsters were photographed to measure changes in carapace length (CL). After 11 months in the field, lobsters increased 92% in mean size from 6.0 to 11.6 mm CL, with 70.8 % overall survival. Head-starting of early benthic stage lobsters shows promise as a tool for possible future stock enhancement in LIS.

Satellite tags were deployed on kemps ridley and loggerhead turtles to assess dive behavior to improve estimates of abundance in aerial surveys

Brown shrimp, Farfantepenaeus aztecus, and white shrimp, Litopenaeus setiferus, were held were held under natural light conditions before experiments. Experiments were conducted in twelve rectangular tanks (58 cm x 149 cm) under fluorescent lighting (7-10 microEinsteins/sec/sq m). Shrimp were placed in randomly-assigned tanks the day before observations were initiated at 0730 h, the lights were turned on, and observations of thepercentage of shrimp burrowed ( 1/2 of their body beneath the substrate) were recorded hourly (starting at 0830 h) throughout the daylight hours. For both species, burrowing rates decreased significantly as the substrate became courser. Brown shrimp burrowing was marginally affected by salinity with the lowest burrowing rates at 5 ppt white shrimp burrowing was not significantly affected by salinity. Large brown shrimp burrowed more than small and medium sized shrimp, but size did not significantly affect burrowing of white shrimp. The presence of a fish predator in the tanks did not affect burrowing of either species, but hunger level significantly affected burrowing for both species.