Southeast Fisheries-Independent Survey (SEFIS) Cruise Report NOAA Ship PISCES, PC-22-03, 8/11/2022 - 9/11/2022

The NOAA Ship Pisces hosted the Southeast Fishery-Independent Survey (SEFIS) for a research cruise in continental shelf and shelf-break waters off North and South Carolina in 2022. SEFIS was created by the National Marine Fisheries Service in 2010 and operates out of the NOAA Beaufort Laboratory. This survey was created to conduct applied fishery-independent sampling and related research focusing on the assessment of spatial variability in distribution and abundance of red snapper and other reef species within the snapper-grouper complex, via data collected from fish traps, video cameras, and acoustics. Transit occurred August 11-15 2022 from Pascagoula, Mississippi, to Morehead City, North Carolina, Leg 1 was scheduled to occur from 17 August to September 2022, and leg 2 was scheduled to occur from 3--19 September 2022 (38 days at sea). In reality, leg 1 was shortened to 17 - 30 August due to a motor cooling leak and leg 2 was shortened to 3-11 September due to an A-frame issue (for a total of 28 days at sea)

During this survey, chevron trap catches and associated underwater video recordings were collected from hardbottom habitats from Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, to approximately Charleston, South Carolina. A total of 379 stations were sampled with camera-trap arrays over 23 sea days, at depths ranging from 19 to 113 m, along with 63 CTD casts.

Cruse PC-22-03 Objectives:

1. Fishery-independent sampling of randomly selected stations in North and South Carolina. Baited chevron traps, with two mounted high-definition video cameras were utilized for a) hardbottom reef fish community assessments, (b) collection of reef fish for biological samples (i.e., otoliths and gonads), and (c) comparative gear sampling (cameras versus raps).

2. Use video cameras on chevron traps to address trap selectivity issues, locate and describe hardbottom habitats, and provide an additional index of abundance for stock assessments.

3. Use a conductivity, temperature, depth (CTD) instrument package to collect environmental data (temperature, salinity, dissolved oxygen, turbidity) at camera-trap sampling locations.

Title : Cruise Report : NOAA Ship PISCES, PC-22-03, Southeast Fishery-Independent Survey (SEFIS), 8/11/2022 - 9/11/2022

Personal Author(s) : Bacheler, Nate

Corporate Authors(s) : Southeast Fisheries Science Center (U.S.)

Published Date : 2023

DOI : https://doi.org/10.25923/94dj-9n43