South Florida Sports Fishing Geodatabase

This project integrates datasets related to sportfishing in South Florida to enable exploration of the spatial and temporal aspects of angling effort in the region.

The National Marine Fisheries Service Marine Recreational Fishing Statistics Survey, the Headboat Survey, the Southeast Fishery Science Center Aerial Survey, and the Biscayne National Park Recreational Creel Survey have been integrated into the South Florida Sportfishing Geodatabase (SFSGeo).

AFA Statistics - The AFA Statistics table describes the spatial dimensions of the different layers in the map. The first column, AFA, shows the breakdown of the entire AFA grid into the total coverage and the area covered with vessels observed in the selected mode and year. The second column, AFA with Reef, shows the breakdown of the AFA grid containing coral reef into the total coverage area and AFAs covered with vessels observed in the selected mode and year. In the third column, Reef Area, the total amount of actual reef area observed within the AFA grid is shown for the entire AFA grid and the AFAs covered with vessels observed in the selected year and mode. The fourth column, Percent Reef Area, gives the percentage of coral reef area within the AFA given by dividing the first column into the third. Note that in all cases, the third row, Percent, gives the percentage of AFA coverage for the different columns as the second row divided by the first.

Monthly Distribution of Sportfishing Vessels - The Monthly Distribution of Sportfishing Vessels table provides a description of the number and percentage of vessels observed in each month over total area and over reef tract for the selected year and mode. The Sum column lists the total over all months of observed annual effort and the final row of the table indicates the share of the vessel count observed over AFAs with coral reef in any give month for the selected year and mode. More detailed information is provided when an individual grid cell is selected.

Selected AFA Statistics - The Selected AFA Statistics table gives annual, monthly, and area summary statistics for the selected AFA, year, and mode. Annual statistics include the total number of vessels observed in the selected AFA and the share total vessels for the selected year and mode that occurred in the selected AFA.

The monthly summary statistics give the monthly average, minimum, maximum, median, and standard deviation number of vessels observed in the selected AFA for the selected year and mode.

Finally, the area statistics show the total area of the selected AFA, area of coral reef within the selected AFA, and the share of the selected AFA covered by coral reef habitat.

Monthly Distribution of Sportfishing Vessels in the Selected AFA - The Monthly Distribution of Sportfishing Vessels in the Selected AFA table lists the number of vessels observed in each month within the selected AFA. The table also shows the monthly percentage of the total vessels observed for the selected year and mode. In the Data Sources row the number of datasets that the observations came from is identified. The user can scroll over these numbers to view a tooltip that list the datasets and the number of observations that were derived from each dataset where HB=head boat survey, MRFSS=Marine Recreational Fisheries Statistics Survey, AS=Aerial Survey, and BNP=Biscayne National Park Creel Survey.

To provide a more comprehensive picture of the istribution of fishing effort in South Florida

Raw data is gathered from other sources, and a Geographic Information System (GIS) tool is added to provide a visual representation of the geographic information.

The Bathymetric Data ranges from 0 to 2500m in 500m intervals and the Reef Habitat is designated by patch or platform margin reefs as defined by the Florida Marine Research Institute (FMRI). Each of these base layers may be turned on and off by checking the appropriate boxes and clicking the submit button.

Below the base layers, there are two dropdown menus: Fishing Mode and Year. The user can select to display the commercial recreational vessel data (For Hire) or the private recreational vessel data (Private) for a particular year ranging from 1991 to 2003. Once a selection has been made from both menus, clicking the submit button displays the Distribution of Fishing Effort within the ten minute square aggregated fishing areas (AFAs)AFA grid as a percentage of the total annual effort for that fishing mode The distribution of Vessel Density in percentages is displayed in a static legend.