Oil Platform Vertical Line Survey (2007)

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. A pilot survey was conducted in 2007 to determine the abundance of reef fish associated with oil and gas platforms in the northern Gulf of Mexico. The fishing gear employed was bandit reels that used a 1.6-mm stainless steel wire main line and ten, 50-lb fluorocarbon gangions with 11/0 circle hooks. Captured fish were identified, counted, weighed and measured. Otoliths and gonads were removed from red snapper and other reef fish species to determine age and fecundity.

To provide abundance information for reef fish associated with oil and gas platforms in the Gulf of Mexico.

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Data are reviewed and edited for accuracy by chief scientists.

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.

All data (e.g. station location, gear characteristics, fish identifications, length measurements, environmental variables, etc.) were recorded on paper and then manually entered into a database. All data are checked for completeness and accuracy by chief scientists.