Through key regional collaborations with the Pacific States Marine Fisheries Commission, Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, Alaska Fisheries Science Center, and the fishing industry, the Marine Habitat Ecology Team at the NWFSC has been able to pursue a wide-ranging array of conservation engineering projects relevant to reducing bycatch in the west coast groundfish and ocean shrimp trawl fisheries. Examples of types of research projects pursued during any given year include: 1) Reducing Chinook salmon, eulachon, rockfish, and Pacific halibut bycatch in midwater and bottom trawl fisheries using Bycatch Reduction Devices (BRDs), 2) Examining selectivity characteristics of codends that differ in mesh size and configuration in bottom trawl fisheries, and 3) Testing other novel bycatch engineering modifications to mobile and fixed gears. Much of our current work has been in response to the fishing industries concerns over catches of overfished and rebuilding rockfishes and Pacific halibut allocated in the Pacific coast Groundfish Trawl Rationalization Catch Share Program. The trawl rationalization program, starting in January 2011, established formal Annual Catch Limits (ACLs) and individual catch share quotas. In addition to ACLs, fishing opportunities may also be limited by hard caps or IBQs for non-groundfish species (e.g., Chinook salmon, and Pacific halibut). Bycatch of overfished and prohibited species in the west coast groundfish trawl fishery has the potential to constrain the fishery such that a substantial portion of available harvest may be left in the ocean. Temperature and light radiance.

Through key regional collaborations with the Pacific States Marine Fisheries Commission, Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, Alaska Fisheries Science Center, and the fishing industry, the Marine Habitat Ecology Team at the NWFSC has been able to pursue a wide-ranging array of conservation engineering projects relevant to reducing bycatch in the west coast groundfish and ocean shrimp trawl fisheries. Examples of types of research projects pursued during any given year include: 1) Reducing Chinook salmon, eulachon, rockfish, and Pacific halibut bycatch in midwater and bottom trawl fisheries using Bycatch Reduction Devices (BRDs), 2) Examining selectivity characteristics of codends that differ in mesh size and configuration in bottom trawl fisheries, and 3) Testing other novel bycatch engineering modifications to mobile and fixed gears. Much of our current work has been in response to the fishing industries concerns over catches of overfished and rebuilding rockfishes and Pacific halibut allocated in the Pacific coast Groundfish Trawl Rationalization Catch Share Program. The trawl rationalization program, starting in January 2011, established formal Annual Catch Limits (ACLs) and individual catch share quotas. In addition to ACLs, fishing opportunities may also be limited by hard caps or IBQs for non-groundfish species (e.g., Chinook salmon, and Pacific halibut). Bycatch of overfished and prohibited species in the west coast groundfish trawl fishery has the potential to constrain the fishery such that a substantial portion of available harvest may be left in the ocean. Species composition (lengths, weights, counts) for regular and bycatch reduction device-impacted trawls.

This system collects bycatch data and fishery landings data from all five NOAA Fisheries Regions and automates the generation of the tables required to publish the National Bycatch Report (NBR). The NBR documents bycatch estimates, using observer data and self-reported logbook data, for all fisheries for which this information is available. NBR bycatch estimates are fishery- and species-specific. The NBR includes bycatch estimates for fish, marine mammals, sea turtles, seabirds, and corals. Future NBR reports will include additional bycatch estimates as new fisheries are monitored and new data are analyzed. Over time, the NBR, along with other information sources, should help improve NOAA Fisheries' ability to monitor bycatch trends, improve stock assessments, and set fishery monitoring priorities, as well as serve as a useful data tool for NOAA Fisheries' management partners.

These data arise from a field test of electronic monitoring (EM) of vessels participating in the Pacific halibut fishery off Alaska. A side-by-side comparison was made of the hook-specific catch data reocrded by fishery observers and EM video reviewers. There are two main components of this data: the data collected by observers and the data recorded by video reviewers (electronic monitoring). The observer data are stored in an oracle database. The hook-specific EM data have been matched to the obsever data (individual hook to individual hook) and are stored in an MS Access Database.

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).

Data collected by the ATLAS Client and transmitted electronically or by fax to the AFSC are loaded into production transaction tables which are the source data for those interfaces used for fishery management, scientific inquiry and fishing activity monitoring by industry.

NWFSC Observer programs are the most comprehensive fishery dependent data collection system for total mortality estimation, protected species monitoring and discard data for stock assessments. Observer data is also used to track quotas in-season for the catch share IFQ fishery. The numerous observer program total mortality and bycatch reports are used by agency and council staff for management of federal and state fisheries on the west coast of the US. Observer program bycatch reports, data collection and research activities are also used to manage ESA listed species and fulfill Biological Opinion obligations. A-SHOP data.

The National Marine Mammal Laboratory (NMML) a division of NOAA's Alaska Fisheries Science Center (Seattle, WA) and Cascadia Research Collective (Olympia, WA) conducted aerial and small boat line transects to estimate the abundance of harbor porpoises in waters of Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia, Canada. This dataset contains line transect survey data with effort (line length) and sighting data (species, group size, distance/angle) and associated covariate data.

This data set contains data that were collected by trained observers aboard domestic pelagic longline vessels operating in the Gulf of Mexico and South Atlantic. Observers collected information on the catch, bycatch, and fishing effort details of these fishing operations.

2010-2017 Vessel Monitoring System (VMS) data were used from the NOAA Office of Law Enforcement to create this fishing effort dataset for the U.S. West Coast. The dataset was generated using VMS points at fishing speeds to create fishing tracks. Tracks were joined to the BOEM aliquot grid (1.2x1.2 km) to create heat maps of fishing effort for various fisheries based on individual and combined declaration codes.,