This international study is funded through the NOAA Fisheries Office of Science and Technology. The overall goal of the proposed research is to identify fishery by-product meals that will best facilitate the incorporation of soy and corn protein meals into marine fish feeds. It is well established that fish proteins are nutritious and valuable feed commodities. However, in many areas of the world, fish processors currently discard large quantities of fish protein as processing waste due to a lack of appropriate technologies to process these by-products. NWFSC and the Yellow Sea Fisheries Research Institute (YSFRI) have independently developed unique industrial processes to produce by-product meals from fishery processing waste that are suitable ingredients for aquaculture feeds. These processes differ in their approach to digestion as the NWFSC process utilizes organic acids to digest tissue homogenates which is contrast to the enzymatic digestion utilized by the YSFRI process. In the past, NWFSC and YSFRI researchers have utilized processing waste from different fish species in their research. As such, it is uncertain how processing method effects protein functionality and structure, which meals may be best utilized by marine fish, and which meals can overcome the nutritional deficiencies inherent to plant proteins. MS Excel spreadsheet.

Raw DNA chromatogram data produced by the ABI 373, 377, 3130 and 3730 automated sequencing machines in ABI format. These are from fish (primarily Sebastes spp., Seriola lalandi, and several shark species) and invertebrates (primarily Haliotis spp.). These data are in either of 2 formats, ".fsa" files containing chromatograms used for genotyping, and ".ab1" files containing chromatograms of DNA sequences. These data are used for studies on taxonomy, population connectivity, species identification, and studies of mating systems

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.

The fishery genetics tissue collection has over 80,000 tissues stored in 95% ethanol representing fishes and invertebrates collected globally but with a focus on the North Pacific. These samples are focused on sharks (primarily blue, mako and common thresher), groundfish (primarily Sebastes spp.), and highly migratory species (tunas, billfish, yellowtail, opah) but also contain assorted other samples including parasites from some animals, eggs and larvae, and abalone (primarily pink abalone).

Each sample that is received by NSIL is assigned a laboratory number and a case file is initiated by the sample custodian. The case file will contain all relevant paperwork for that sample including the sample submission sheet, laboratory raw data worksheets, the final results report and any other relevant documentation. The sample custodian enters the client information into the NSIL Sample tracking system (Sample receipt database) and generates appropriate client and sample receipt information. The laboratory analysts perform the appropriate analyses and record the results and whether the results are compliant or non-compliant with the assigned acceptance levels. The analysts also record the record of charges and the analytical and quality assurance units that were used to complete all analysis. The database is used to track samples analyzed by NSIL from sample receipt to reporting of results. It tracks numbers of samples, number of analytical units, types of samples, purpose for sampling ans analytical costs.

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.

Each year, a number of seafood samples are exported from the US to Europe, including edible tissues collected from high trophic level marine fish species such as dogfish. Obtaining information on concentrations of potentially toxic environmental contaminants [e.g., polychlorinated biphenyls, mercury] in these samples is important to ensure that these export products are safe for human consumption. As part of a pilot study, edible tissues (back and belly muscle) of spiny and smooth dogfish collected during fleet study and dockside surveillance operations in the Northeast Region of the US were analyzed at the Northwest Fisheries Science Center for a suite of persistent organic pollutants including PCBs, DDTs and other chlorinated pesticides to determine the influence of biological factors (e.g., length, sex) and geographical collection region on contaminant levels. Persistent organic pollutants, stable isotopes, and lipids in smooth and spiny dogfish from the northwestern Atlantic.

This project extends and advances existing ocean distribution and size models for Chinook Salmon, a major prey of Southern Resident Killer Whales (SRKW) and target of important fisheries, to provide ocean distribution estimates for multiple run-types (fall, summer, and spring Chinook) arising from rivers from California to Alaska by season and under variable oceanic conditions. It leverages very large tag-recapture databases that have been developed for Chinook Salmon over the past 50 years – hundreds of millions of fish tagged and millions recovered – and links these recoveries to a range of fisheries in which Chinook are targeted or captured as bycatch. It integrates data coast-wide, from Alaska to California, and over more than 30 years (1978-2015), to provide a first synthetic, quantitative description of Chinook distribution that can be used to understand the total Chinook prey field available to SRKW, fishers, and other predators in different seasons and under alternate ocean states. In addition, this projects examines long-term trends in Chinook salmon size and their biological implications. Chinook populations have shown pronounced trends toward smaller and younger fish returning to spawn, and these trends have accelerated in the last 15 years. This erosion of the age-size structure and life-history diversity may negatively affect population productivity via reductions in reproductive potential, and may compromise the long-term viability of populations and jeopardize the sustainability of Chinook salmon fisheries. Consequently, long-term shifts in life-history characteristics, which are likely caused by changing ecological conditions in the ocean, might need to be accounted for when estimating reference points for fishery management. This work supports ongoing efforts to recover SRKW populations, informs the SRKW critical habitat designation process and recovery plans, feeds into the PFMC SRKW ad hoc work group, and is directly in line with the NMFS Ecosystem-Based Fisheries Management Road Map and Policy as well as the National Climate Science Strategy.

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.

Collection of annual data on processed seafood products. The Division provides authoritative advice, coordination and guidance on matters related to the collection, analysis and dissemination of biological, economic, market and sociological statistics by NMFS and state agencies. This data set contains quantity and value data for processed seafood products as well as employment data for included processing entities.