Congressional Supplemental Longline Survey (2011)

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. In 2010, Congress appropriated supplemental funding to expand these surveys in the Gulf of Mexico in response to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. Bottom longline stations were conducted throughout the northern Gulf of Mexico during 2011. Sampling occurred on multiple contracted fishing vessels simultaneously in the eastern, central and western Gulf of Mexico during all seasons. Data on species-specific catch rates, body lengths and sex were recorded.

To examine spatial and seasonal variability in species distributions and catch rates in the northern Gulf of Mexico.

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As specimens are collected, total number of individual fish by species and lengths are taken and recorded into the shipboard data collections system. At the end of each survey data, are reviewed for accuracy/relevance by chief scientists. Specimens that cannot be identified during the survey are identified in the laboratory.

Data resides in the laboratories’ centralized database (Oracle). Security patches are applied to the database and host environment immediately after their release. In addition, Security benchmarks are applied to the database and host environment. Data residing in the centralized database (Oracle) is backed up nightly. Backup sets are placed on the laboratories’ Networked Attached Storage (NAS) environment. Security patches/updates are immediately applied to the host environment. Data is stripped/mirrored using RAID 50 technology to protect data from disk failure. Nightly backups are preformed and files are written to magnetic tape and stored in an onsite / offsite location.

Catch data (species, length, weight, sex) were collected on paper and were then entered into the Access database. All longline set locations were manually entered based on GPS locations and environmental data were recorded from handheld water analyzers. All data were then thoroughly scrutinized by watch leaders at sea and then again checked for accuracy at the end of each survey. These data were then transferred to the custodian.