The Southeast Fisheries Science Center Mississippi Laboratories has conducted standardized groundfish trawl surveys in the Gulf of Mexico since 1987. Prior to 1987, the summer survey was conducted under Southeast Area Monitoring and Assessment Program (SEAMAP) protocols; however, the fall survey operated independent of SEAMAP and dates back to 1972. 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.

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.

The Marine Mammal Authorization Program (MMAP) allows commercial fishers to lawfully "incidentally take" a marine mammal in a commercial fishery. The person must complete an online mortality/ injury reporting electronic form within 48 hours of the end of a fishing trip in which the mortality or serious injury occurred, or, for non-vessel fisheries, within 48 hours of the occurrence.

The Acoustic Backscatter data sets are GIS raster images of the range of backscatter amplitudes projected onto a colormap from multibeam echosounder amplitude data or side scan sonar amplitude data. These amplitude data from individual datafiles are mosaicked into a single raster.

FADs

All marine mammals are protected under the Marine Mammal Protection Act of 1972, as amended (MMPA). The MMPA prohibits, with certain exceptions, the "take" of marine mammals in U.S. waters and by U.S. citizens on the high seas. However, the MMPA allows, upon request, the incidental take of marine mammals by U.S. citizens who engage in a specified activity (other than commercial fishing) within a specified geographic region.

The CMECS Component Geodatabase houses component layers for the entire Chesapeake Bay. Available component layers currently include the Substrate Component. Future component additions will include Biotic and Geoform.

This spreadsheet is the central tracking document and inventory of "official" GIS datasets in development, published, or archived at the Greater Atlantic Regional Fisheries Office (GARFO). All shapefiles, data templates and other documents are described here.

These data are depth contours (isobaths) derived at 50 meters for most islands and reefs in the Mariana Archipelago, American Samoa, and the Pacific Remote Island Areas. Contours at 10- or 20-meter depths have also been derived for a subset of the same locations.

This study involves analysis of skeletal growth marks in humerus bones of 222 juvenile loggerhead sea turtles (Caretta caretta) stranded dead along the Atlantic US coast and provides age, growth rate, and stage duration estimates