2010 FL-GA red snapper longline CRP project

These data are from a cooperative effort between scientists and commercial fishers to assess whether a cryptic biomass of relatively old and large red snapper occurred in continental shelf-break and deeper waters off the Atlantic coast of Florida and Georgia. Contracted commercial fishers used industry-standard longline gear to survey red snapper across three depth strata and eight latitudinal bands off Florida and Georgia. There was considerable variation in age and size distributions of caught red snapper (age range 3 to 15 years size range 46 to 93 cm fork length), and in catch-per-unit-effort. However, the cryptic biomass hypothesis was not supported by the data, as there was no evidence of greater ages, sizes, or catch of red snapper in shelf-break or deeper waters relative to shallower, continental shelf waters.

To assess whether a cryptic biomass of relatively old and large red snapper occurred in continental shelf-break and deeper waters off the Atlantic coast of Florida and Georgia.

Location Of The Main Office Of The South East Fisheries Science Center

The data are available from the data steward.

None.

Hand-written field observations were error checked at two levels: first by the NMFS SEFSC Bottom Longline Observer Program, and secondly by personnel in the NMFS SEFSC Beaufort Laboratory Fisheries Ecology Branch. Estimated fish age data were delivered electronically by NMFS SEFSC Sustainable Fisheries Branch aging laboratory personnel, matched with verified MS Access specimen records by NMFS SEFSC Fisheries Ecology Branch personnel, and ingested to the master MS Access database.

This data is currently wavered under the current NOAA guidelines for relational databases.

The archival process is currently under development.

The data resides on a secure government network requiring multi-factor authentication for network access.