SEFSC Elasmobranch Tag and Recapture Database (longterm capture and recapture data)

The Panama City Laboratory and Mississippi Laboratories of the NOAA Southeast Fisheries Science Center (SEFSC) and the Cooperative Shark Tagging Program (CSTP) at the NOAA Northeast Fisheries Science Center (NEFSC) have tagged several thousand elasmobranchs in the Gulf of Mexico and US southeast Atlantic Ocean since 1994. The creation of the Gulf of Mexico State Shark Pupping and Nursery (GULFSPAN) Survey in 2003 greatly expanded the elasmobranch tagging effort in the Gulf of Mexico. Because this survey was headed by the Shark Population Assessment Group at the NOAA Fisheries Panama City Laboratory, the contact information on tags pointed to the NOAA Fisheries Panama City Laboratory. That same year, NOAA Mississippi Laboratories ceased using M-tags supplied by and whose contact information pointed to the NEFSC CSTP. Instead, scientists began tagging elasmobranchs with tags that pointed to the NOAA Fisheries Panama City Laboratory. Beginning in 2006, all GULFSPAN Survey participants, NOAA Observers in the Shark Bottom Longling and Shark Gillnet Programs, several SEAMAP participants, as well as collaborative university researchers were supplied with tags whose contact information is the NOAA Fisheries Panama City Laboratory. This database describes tagging and recapture data 2000-current for over seventeen thousand elasmobranchs collected in the Gulf of Mexico and US Atlantic Ocean. Tags are only supplied to research institutions only no recreational fishermen are supplied with tags.

Recognizing the need to standardize tag and recapture data collection, NOAA Fisheries Panama City Laboratory developed an elasmobranch tagging management system for the NOAA SEFSC. The ultimate goal of the database is to provide managers, researchers, and the public involved in elasmobranch research with a system to archive and recall elasmobranch tag and recapture data in order to gain information on migration routes, growth rates, stock identity, and population dynamics of elasmobranch species in the Gulf of Mexico and southeast Atlantic Ocean.

SEFSC Elasmobranch Tagging Database

Location Of The Main Office Of The South East Fisheries Science Center

The data will be available from a public web server once an access methodology has been developed.

None

n/a

This data is currently wavered under the current NOAA guidelines for relational databases.

The archival process is currently under development.

The data resides on a secure government network requiring multi-factor authentication for network access.