Gray Snapper Abundance Indices from Inshore Surveys of Northeastern Gulf of Mexico estuaries

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, Fish and Wildlife Research Institute (FWRI), has conducted estuarine surveys since 1989 (seasonally) and since 1996 (monthly) in estuarine systems along the northern Gulf of Mexico. In 2008, seagrass surveys in the polyhaline reaches of several estuarine systems were developed to improve abundance indices for estuarine-dependent reef fish. These fisheries independent datasets were used to develop four separate abundance indices for Gray Snapper (Lutjanus griseus): age 0 (≤ 100 mm SL) from monthly collections (1998-2015), age 0 from seagrass surveys (2008-2015), age 1 (101-250 mm SL) from monthly collections (1996-2015) and age 1 from seagrass surveys (2008-2015). Appropriate estuarine systems and gears, as determined by abundance of defined size classes, were combined for each index by using a weighting factor that takes into account differences between the proportion of available area and the proportion of sets completed within each sampling universe.

Flaherty-Walia, K.E., Theodore S. Switzer, and Amanda J. Tyler-Jedlund. 2017. Gray Snapper Abundance Indices from Inshore Surveys of Northeastern Gulf of Mexico estuaries. SEDAR51-DW-11. SEDAR, North Charleston, SC. 61 pp