Fisheries Assessment and Monitoring Program (FAMP)

Alabama’s Fishery Independent Assessment and Monitoring Program (FAMP) officially began in October 1980; it was designed as a long-term program to establish baseline trends for estuarine populations in Alabama marine waters. Site selections were originally based on thorough geographical coverage with samples obtained once a month. Ichthyoplankton gear was incorporated into the program to discover spawning seasons of estuarine species. As the program evolved, some sites were abandoned as biologically or statistically unproductive. New sites have been introduced as recently as April 2002 to address watershed changes or specific areas of concern. At all sites, dissolved oxygen, temperature and salinity data are collected to obtain hydrological data to compare annual fluctuations and detect any chronic trends.

Two historical studies, GMEI (1/68 – 3/69) and Tidal River Survey (12/70 – 5/72) were also accomplished by AMRD in Alabama’s coastal waters. This data has been entered into Word for addition to the FAMP database.

Sampling gears and methodology are a 10 minute tow using a 16’ otter trawl, 100 feet from shore pull with a 50’ bag seine and a 100’ arc using the beam trawl for benthic post larvae. Samples are preserved in formalin and processed at the lab. Specimens are identified to species and length, weight are determined. Basic hydrological data is also collected at each site. Recently, acquisition of a Hydrolab has expanded data collected to include pH and data is collected from mid and surface depths as well. All biological and hydrological data is entered in Word and processed in SAS. Data through December 2002 has been entered and the entire database is currently being proofed. A new Excel database includes all depths of hydrological data and the pH parameter.

For the past three years, Alabama has employed a multi-paneled gill-net to sample adult finfish inshore. This effort samples randomly selected areas of Alabama coastal waters 20 times monthly.