The Bi-annual and Annual Reports are periodic reports issued for public release.

Large whale stranding, death, ship strike and entanglement incidents are all recorded to monitor the health of each population and track anthropogenic factors that influence their recovery. This Oracle developed database is meant to consolidate the various forms of data into one searchable source for the east coast. Biological and geographic information will be recorded and searchable along with fishing gear information (entanglements), vessel parameters (ship strikes) and serious injury determinations.

This data set contains information on Hawaiian monk seal gross necropsy (in some cases only field notes or minimal information) and histopathology results beginning in 1964. Data includes information on all recovered Hawaiian monk seal carcasses that were necropsied. Information derived from pathology reports is included when tissues were reviewed by pathologists. Necropsy tissues are collected by Hawaiian Monk Seal Research Program (HMSRP) personnel and cooperating scientists as part of the ongoing health and disease assessment. The tissues are reviewed by collaborating pathologists. All original paper reports are housed at the NOAA Inouye Regional Center (IRC) and most are available electronically. Data are available in an excel spreadsheet.

Tissues and samples collected from marine mammals during investigation of the Northern Gulf of Mexico Marine Mammal Unusual Mortality Event are tracked within this database. These include a broad variety of tissues and associated analyses. The database is used to track to collection, disposition, storage, and analytical results of each sample. These data have been used to evaluate the causes of mortality associated with the Northern Gulf of Mexico Unusual mortality event.

Compilation of the data that go into the annual marine mammal stock assessment reports, including abundance and bycatch estimates, PBR calculations, bibliographic references, update history, and serious injury determinations.

Compilation of the data that go into the annual marine mammal stock assessment reports, including abundance and bycatch estimates, PBR calculations, bibliographic references, update history, and serious injury determinations.

The majority of octopus bycatch occurs in Pacific cod pot fisheries and recent data collected by North Pacific Groundfish Observers indicate that immediate mortality of octopus caught in these fisheries is very small. The objectives of the proposed research were to examine the delayed mortality of E. dofleini captured in Pacific cod pot fisheries. These data are necessary to make sound management decisions for octopus based on appropriate scientific information. This data set contains observations and measurements on the condition, weight, and survivorship of North Pacific giant octopus that were caught as bycatch in commercial fishing operations utilizing pot gear to target Pacific cod. These octopus were captured during commercial fishing operations that occurred during three fishing seasons from January 2014 through February 2015. These commercial fishing operations occurred in the central Gulf of Alaska in either Shelikof Strait or Marmot Bay. Data collected included information on octopus condition, size, sex, and injury presence. Other data collected included the location of capture, water depth, octopus air exposure time, water temperature, and gear soak time. These octopus were transported to the Kodiak sea water facility and held for a period of several months. During this period data were collected on condition, injury presence, and survivorship at 21 days. After this period octopus were held for an additional five to six weeks to assess growth within the laboratory. Octopus were fed to satiation every 72 hours during this period. Food was weighed prior to feeding and remaining food was weighed after a four hour period. The final food weight was corrected for water soaking time. Octopus were weighed once per week during this period of time. Several metrics of octopus feeding and growth were measured after this period including specific growth rate, absolute growth rate, absolute feeding rate, specific feeding rate, feeding efficiency, and daily growth rate.

These Marine Mammals and Sea Turtles data were gathered and utilized during the Response and Assessment phases of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. These data are for the 28 species of whales and dolphins, the Florida manatee, and the sea turtle species occurring in the Gulf, including those threatened or endangered under the Endangered Species Act: Kemp’s ridley, green, leatherback, loggerhead and hawksbill. It includes discrete samples, field observations, field photographs, telemetry tracks and related files originating from the Marine Mammals and Sea Turtles Technical Working Groups (TWGs). The data were compiled by the NOAA Office of Response and Restoration (OR&R) and Trustees in the Data Integration, Visualization, Exploration, and Reporting (DIVER) data warehouse prior to being archived by the NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI). The collection of files include environmental data used to determine the extent and magnitude of injury to the Gulf of Mexico ecosystem from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. These data were used as part of the Programmatic Damage Assessment and Restoration Plan (PDARP) developed through the Natural Resource Damage Assessment (NRDA) conducted as a result of the April 20, 2010 explosion and subsequent sinking of the Deepwater Horizon offshore drilling rig in the Gulf of Mexico, about 40 miles (60 km) southeast off the Louisiana coast, that led to a major oil spill in the region.

NMFS Cooperative Research studies for octopus. Two small field studies to increase information for management of the octopus complex in the BSAI and GOA. The first project provided gear and fuel for commercial vessels to test fish longlined habitat pot gear for directed octopus fishing. Gear included the plywood box pots developed for NPRB project 906 and HPDE octopus pots purchased by one industry partner from overseas. One vessel deployed groundline from a longline reel and the other from a commercial crab block; in both cases, octopus habitat pots were added as clip-on gear to the longline. The longline vessel in the GOA caught octopus in both plywood and HDPE pots, with the catch rate varying by season. The pot vessel in the BSAI had no problems handling gear, but caught very little octopus. The second project was directed at estimating short-term delayed mortality of octopus caught in commercial crab pot gear. Octopus captured in cod pots were held in individual containers in running seawater for 48-60 hours, and examined for condition every 24 hours. None of the 36 octopus in the study showed mortality or decline in condition during the observed period. Two octopus held in containers on deck (in air) survived more than two hours. All but one of the octopus were in excellent condition at the usual point of discard.

Observer Program web page that lists the observer field manual and all current data collection forms that observers are required to take out to sea.