: Research on the U.S. Distinct Population Segment of smalltooth sawfish (Pristis pectinata) life history, abundance, habitat use, movements, and migration is necessary to promote and facilitate recovery. A multi-disciplinary approach focusing research on action items in the Smalltooth Sawfish Recovery Plan has occurred since 2009. One of the high priority tasks outlined in the plan is abundance and recruitment of juvenile sawfish. One of the most important regions for young-of-the-year and small juveniles is coastal southwest Florida. This database describes catch and environmental data taken in southwest Florida (Marco Island to Florida Bay) for 2009-current under protected species permits issued to SEFSC/NMFS 13330 (2009-2013) and 17787 (2014-2019).

Photos of catch, methodology, scientists, and habitat organized by year and month, 2003-current.

Observers are required to take photos and/or videos of all incidentally caught sea turtles, marine mammals, seabirds and unusual or rare fish. On the first 3 observed trips observers are also required to take photos of all fish they encounter for the first time.

Photos of fish, marine mammals, turtles, ships, and other related subjects for use by students, educators, scientists, media, etc.

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 of Madison-Swanson and Steamboat Lumps MPA is conducted primarily on the along topographic features (e.g. reefs, banks and ledges) of the MPA. A two-stage sampling design is used with the first stage or primary sampling units defined by geographic/geoform strata including ridges, pinnacles, rubble and sand flats and the second stage being randomly selected sites within the geoform strata. Sampling is conducted using a video camera array. No biological sampling is coupled with the survey because of the areas status as an MPA. 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. Habitat mapping was conducted using a multibeam echosounder by USGS. At each site hydrological data is collected using Conductivity Temperature Depth sensor (CTD).

Observers are required to take photos and/or videos of all incidentally caught sea turtles, marine mammals, seabirds and unusual or rare fish. On the first 3 observed trips observers are also required to take photos of all fish they encounter for the first time.

This is a long term data set collecting visual census transect data on reef fishes at staions located at Rileys Hump, Tortugas South Ecological Reservee.

Juvenile spotted seatrout and other sportfish are being monitored annually over a 6-mo period in Florida Bay to assess their abundance over time relative to restoration of a more natural pattern of freshwater flow from the Florida Everglades through implementation of the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan (CERP). This monitoring and assessment project will provide a scientific basis for the selection of spatial and temporal abundance indices, performance measures, and targets to determine the effect of CERP on Florida Bay resources. Monitoring annually during the period of greatest abundance, May through October, will provide data to determine whether there is a significant relationship of sport fish distribution and abundance to salinity and other environmental variables. Habitat suitability models will be developed from the data and will be used to predict distribution and abundance under different scenarios of freshwater inflow, past and future. This data set provides information on stomach contents of juvenile spotted seatrout. This dataset also contains the data on potential prey species (caridean and penaeid shrimps and small fishes) caught in the trawl at a subset of stations sampled.

This data set is derived from complementary projects operated in western and southwestern Puerto Rico. The research was designed 1) to compare the prevalence and impact of coral diseases on reefs across a gradient of human affects from mainland Puerto Rico, to more remote shelf edge reefs, and also uninhabited offshore islands (Mona Island and Desecheo Island) to understand factors that enhance or decrease disease impacts and document the resulting effects on reef fish assemblages, and 2) to monitor restoration success at the site of the M/V Fortuna Reefer grounding on Mona Island using Acropora palmata fragment reattachment, growth, and survival, incidence of coral disease, and composition of reef fish assemblages as indicators of recovery and reef health. The data consist of transect surveys (30 x 2 m) and stationary point counts (5m radius) of reef fish assemblages taken around permanent sites: identification to the lowest taxon possible (generally, genus and species), abundance, size estimates (fork length to the nearest cm). Samples are identified by location, date, time, and observer. Benthic data are maintained separately by co-PI (A. Bruckner).

The Southeast Fisheries Science Center Mississippi Laboratories conducts standardized reef fish video surveys in the Gulf of Mexico since 1992. The survey primarily occurs on the outer continental shelf along topographic features (e.g. reefs, banks and ledges) between Brownsville, TX to the Dry Tortugas, FL, and provides fisheries independent indices of reef fish abundance for use in stock assessments.