A correction factor is calculated by month and vessel to adjust for misreporting as described above. These correction factors are applied to the reported landings by species-vessel-month combinations to generate total estimated numbers of fish landed. These numbers are then multiplied by mean weights of fish calculated from the bioprofile data by species-area-month combinations to generate a total weight of fish landed for each species-vessel-month combination. Landings estimates are provided by species, area and month.

This data set contains catch and effort for fishing trips that are taken by vessels with a Federal permit issued for the swordfish and sharks under the Highly Migratory Species (HMS) fishery management plan. Fishermen that own vessels with permits in these fisheries are required to complete a vessel logbook for every trip in which any species in the Highly Migratory Species fishery management plans are caught and landed. Fishermen are not required to report fishing trips in which other than these species are caught. However, fishermen are required to submit a no-fishing report if they did not fish for or catch any HMS species during a calendar month. In 1986, the Southeast Fisheries Science Center (SEFSC) initiated a logbook program for vessels that held a federal vessel permit to fish for swordfish in the Atlantic Ocean and Gulf of Mexico. In 1993, a similar program was initiated for vessels with a federal permit to fish for sharks that are included in the HMS fishery management plan. In order to provide sufficient level of detail for fishing effort by the longline vessels, the catch and effort data need to be reported for each longline set. Consequently, a single logbook form was designed for the fishermen to record the catch (numbers of animals caught) and effort, which includes data on the length of the longline, the number of hooks and the duration of the set. To reduce the number of times that fishermen need to record certain pieces of information, e.g., location of unloading, duration of trip, number of crew, a trip summary form was designed in 1999 that includes the trip-related information that is the same for every set. This redesign of the logbook form resulted in two forms, the trip summary and the set forms. Only one trip summary needs to be completed for each trip, but a separate set form needs to be completed for each longline set made during the trip. At the same time, additional questions were added to the trip summary form to collect information on the expenses that the vessels incurred during the trip. Initially, this information was voluntary and the fishermen did not have to provide the cost data whereas the catch and effort data are mandatory and the vessels permit will not be renewed if logbooks are not received for every trip where swordfish and/or sharks are caught and landed.

We assembled 1.75 million National Ocean Service (NOS) bathymetric soundings from 225 lead-line and single-beam echosounder hydrographic surveys conducted from 1901 to 1999 in the central Gulf of Alaska. These bathymetry data are available from the National Geophysical Data Center (NGDC: http://www.ngdc.noaa.gov), which archives and distributes data that were originally collected by the NOS and others. While various bathymetry data have been downloaded previously from NGDC, compiled, and used for a variety of projects, our effort differed in that we compared and corrected the digital bathymetry by studying the original analog source documents - digital versions of the original survey maps, called smooth sheets. There were several areas where these older surveys were superseded by more recent, higher quality multibeam surveys, mostly from the NOS (n=106). Three of these were unprocessed NOS multibeam surveys in the Sitka area, which we edited and processed into final bathymetric surfaces. We reduced the resolution of these multibeam surveys to 100 m, since some may have sub-meter resolution and many exceed a million soundings, and added them to our bathymetry compilation. Survey H11354 was missing in the entrance to Sitka Sound. Processing and adding its bathymetric data to our compilation filled in a substantial gap in Sitka area.

We assembled 1.75 million National Ocean Service (NOS) bathymetric soundings from 225 lead-line and single-beam echosounder hydrographic surveys conducted from 1901 to 1999 in the central Gulf of Alaska. These bathymetry data are available from the National Geophysical Data Center (NGDC: http://www.ngdc.noaa.gov), which archives and distributes data that were originally collected by the NOS and others. While various bathymetry data have been downloaded previously from NGDC, compiled, and used for a variety of projects, our effort differed in that we compared and corrected the digital bathymetry by studying the original analog source documents - digital versions of the original survey maps, called smooth sheets. There were several areas where these older surveys were superseded by more recent, higher quality multibeam surveys, mostly from the NOS (n=106). Three of these were unprocessed NOS multibeam surveys in the Sitka area, which we edited and processed into final bathymetric surfaces. We reduced the resolution of these multibeam surveys to 100 m, since some may have sub-meter resolution and many exceed a million soundings, and added them to our bathymetry compilation. In Sitka Sound survey H11118 was missing. Processing and adding its bathymetric data to our compilation filled in a substantial gap in Sitka area, between Kruzof, Krestof, and Middle islands.

We assembled 1.75 million National Ocean Service (NOS) bathymetric soundings from 225 lead-line and single-beam echosounder hydrographic surveys conducted from 1901 to 1999 in the central Gulf of Alaska. These bathymetry data are available from the National Geophysical Data Center (NGDC: http://www.ngdc.noaa.gov), which archives and distributes data that were originally collected by the NOS and others. While various bathymetry data have been downloaded previously from NGDC, compiled, and used for a variety of projects, our effort differed in that we compared and corrected the digital bathymetry by studying the original analog source documents - digital versions of the original survey maps, called smooth sheets. There were several areas where these older surveys were superseded by more recent, higher quality multibeam surveys, mostly from the NOS (n=106). Three of these were unprocessed NOS multibeam surveys in the Sitka area, which we edited and processed into final bathymetric surfaces. We reduced the resolution of these multibeam surveys to 100 m, since some may have sub-meter resolution and many exceed a million soundings, and added them to our bathymetry compilation. In Sitka Sound was missing survey H11114. Processing and adding its bathymetric data to our compilation filled in a substantial gap in Sitka area, between Kruzof and Krestof islands.

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 is conducted primarily on the outer continental shelf of the Gulf of Mexico along topographic features (e.g. reefs, banks and ledges) between Brownsville, TX to the Dry Tortugas, FL. A two-stage sampling design is used with the first stage or primary sampling units being blocks 10 minutes of latitude by 10 minutes of longitude and the second stage being randomly selected sites within the blocks. The first-stage units are selected by stratified random sampling, with stratum boundaries defined by geographic region (4 regions: South Florida, Northeast Gulf, Louisiana-Texas Shelf, and South Texas), and by reef habitat area (Blocks < 20 km² reef, Blocks > 20 km² reef). Sampling is conducted using a video camera array, vertical line gear and chevron traps with approximately 400 video cameras, 400 vertical line and 100 traps conducted. 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. At sites selected for fish sampling, a chevron (or arrow) fish trap or vertical line is used to capture fish for biological samples. The chevron fish trap is constructed with 1.5-inch vinyl-clad mesh. In its greatest dimensions, the trap is 1.76 m in length, 1.52 m in width and 0.61 m in depth. A 0.4 m by 0.29 m blow out panel is placed on one side and kept closed using 7-day magnesium releases. The fish trap soaks for one hour and is baited with squid. The vertical line consists of a mainline with 10 gangions. One 8/0, 11/0 or 15/0 circle hook is attached to each gangion and baited with mackerel (Scomber scombrus). The mainline is soaked for five minutes. Most of the animals captured are measured, weighed, tagged and then released. Those individuals which are moribund or have expired are retained to collect biological data pertaining to the life history of these fishes. Habitat mapping is conducted using the SIMRAD ME70 multibeam echosounder. At each site hydrological data is collected using Conductivity Temperature Depth sensor (CTD).

We assembled 1.4 million National Ocean Service (NOS) bathymetric soundings from 98 lead-line and single-beam echosounder hydrographic surveys conducted from 1910 to 1999 in Cook Inlet, Alaska. These bathymetry data are available from the National Geophysical Data Center (NGDC: http://www.ngdc.noaa.gov), which archives and distributes data that were originally collected by the NOS and others. While various bathymetry data have been downloaded previously from NGDC, compiled, and used for a variety of projects, our effort differed in that we compared and corrected the digital bathymetry by studying the original analog source documents - digital versions of the original survey maps, called smooth sheets. Our editing included deleting erroneous and superseded values, digitizing missing values, and properly aligning all data sets to a common, modern datum. There were six areas where these older surveys were superseded by compilations of reduced-resolution multibeam surveys. We digitized 12,000 features, such as rocky reefs, kelp beds, rocks and islets, adding them to what was originally available, and creating the most thorough source (n = 18,000) of these typically shallow, inshore features. We also digitized 2,418 km of the mainland and 529 km of island shoreline, generally at a resolution of 1:20,000, and digitized 9,271 verbal surficial sediment descriptions from the smooth sheets. The depth surface, shoreline, inshore features, and sediment data sets are mostly produced at a scale of 1:20,000.

We assembled 1.4 million National Ocean Service (NOS) bathymetric soundings from 98 lead-line and single-beam echosounder hydrographic surveys conducted from 1910 to 1999 in Cook Inlet, Alaska. These bathymetry data are available from the National Geophysical Data Center (NGDC: http://www.ngdc.noaa.gov), which archives and distributes data that were originally collected by the NOS and others. While various bathymetry data have been downloaded previously from NGDC, compiled, and used for a variety of projects, our effort differed in that we compared and corrected the digital bathymetry by studying the original analog source documents - digital versions of the original survey maps, called smooth sheets. Our editing included deleting erroneous and superseded values, digitizing missing values, and properly aligning all data sets to a common, modern datum. There were six areas where these older surveys were superseded by compilations of reduced-resolution multibeam surveys. We digitized 12,000 features, such as rocky reefs, kelp beds, rocks and islets, adding them to what was originally available, and creating the most thorough source (n = 18,000) of these typically shallow, inshore features. We also digitized 2,418 km of the mainland and 529 km of island shoreline, generally at a resolution of 1:20,000, and digitized 9,271 verbal surficial sediment descriptions from the smooth sheets. The depth surface, shoreline, inshore features, and sediment data sets are mostly produced at a scale of 1:20,000.

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. Environmental profiles are acquired during all surveys and are averaged into one meter depth bins. The data are acquired with Sea-Bird SBE25 and SBE9 profilers equipped with water temperature, conductivity, dissolved oxygen, beam transmittance, and fluorescence sensors. The data are processed with Sea-Bird software using a standard processing protocol.

This data set, in the table ALS.ALS_LANDINGS7278 contains annual and monthly quantities and values for all seafood products that are landed within the Southeast Region and sold by established seafood dealers and brokers. It complements the table ALS.ALS_LANDINGS. These types of fishery-dependent data, referred to as the general canvass landings statistics, have been collected by the NOAA Fisheries Service, National Marine Fisheries Service and its predecessor agency, the Bureau of Commercial Fisheries and more recently by our State partner agencies under the Cooperative Statistics Program. These data are available on computer since the early 1960's. The quantities and values that are reported in this data set include the annual and monthly landings that were initiated in 1972. Between 1962 and 1971, the data for were collected annually and not monthly. See the sections on Links for the reference to the annual general canvass landings. The general canvass landings from 1972-1976 include quantities and values for all marine commercial landings and are identified by species (usually the local or common name). These data are collected from or reported by every seafood dealer or broker that is licensed by each state in the Southeast Region (North Carolina through Texas). Information on the gear and area of capture is available for most of the landings statistics in the data set (please see Issues for exceptions); however, they are summary records and do not contain information on the quantities of fishing effort or identify the fishermen or vessels that caught the fish or shellfish. This table contains data from FL-TX for the years 1972-1976. The ALS.ALS_LANDINGS table contains data for GA-NC for the same period as well as all the more recent monthly data. In the early years, the data in this data set were collected by field agents employed by the Southeast Fisheries Science Center and assigned to local fishing ports. The field agents canvassed the seafood dealers and recorded the quantity and value for each species or species category from the dealer?s receipts. Based on interviews with dealers and fishermen as well as their own detailed knowledge of the fishing activity in the area, the agents would determine the type of fishing gear and area where the fishing occurred. In addition, summarized data are extracted from the NOAA-SEFSC Gulf Shrimp System for commercial landings of shrimp species that are landed at ports in the coastal area of the Gulf of Mexico.