NOAA Fisheries Habitat Science Projects

Healthy habitats provide the foundation for these economically vital fisheries ($200 billion annually) as well as a diverse array of marine life that live along our coasts. From the sand and sediment on the ocean bottoms to the forests of underwater vegetation and corals to the actual water itself, habitats provide all the necessities for fishery and marine species to survive and thrive. Coastal wetlands for example may provide protection to young fish from predators while waters within a certain temperature range may allow other species to grow in abundance. 

Want to learn more about the research NOAA Fisheries is doing to better understand the role habitat plays in our nation’s fishery species? The following is a collection of 36 projects between year 2010 and 2018 looking at everything from how to incorporate habitat into fish surveys and stock assessments to locating reproductive areas for red king crab.

2016

Seabed mapping to develop a habitat-based catchability function for the Bristol Bay red king crab (Paralithodes camtschatica) stock assessment

Principal Investigator: Robert McConnaughey and William Stockhausen, Alaska Fisheries Science Center, Seattle, WA. Scott Goodman, Bering Sea Fisheries Research Foundation, Seattle, WA

Using Habitat Specific, Spatial Demographic Information to Improve Stock Assessments of Groundfishes

Principal Investigator: Jameal Samhouri, Scott Hamilton, Jason Cope

Kill ‘em or hide ‘em: where are the old female rockfish?

Principal Investigator: Susan Sogard, John Field, Mary Yoklavich, NOAA/NMFS/SWFSC/FED, Santa Cruz, CA

Marshes to mangroves: examining growth and patterns of habitat use by penaeid shrimp in a changing marsh landscape to inform stock assessments

Principal Investigator: Jennifer Doerr
Co-Principal Investigators: Thomas Minello, Lawrence Rozas, Rick Hart
External Collaborators: James Nelson

Combining High-Resolution Bathymetry and Recreational Catch Rates to Model the Spatial Distribution of Biomass for Reef-Associated Nearshore Species

Principal Investigator: E.J. Dick¹, Melissa Monk¹, and Rebecca Miller^1,2

¹NMFS, SWFSC, Fisheries Ecology Division
²The Cooperative Institute for Marine Ecosystems and Climate, University of California, Santa Cruz)

2015

Improving Stock Assessments for Rockfishes Using Habitat-referenced Acoustic Surveys in the Gulf of Alaska

Principal Investigator: Chris Wilson
Co-Principal Investigators: Darin Jones, Chris Rooper, Paul Spencer, Dana Hanselman, John Heifetz
External Collaborators: Tom Weber (CCOM, University of New Hampshire)

Distribution and application of a new geostatistical index standardization and habitat modeling tool for stock assessments and essential fish habitat designation in Alaska and Northwest Atlantic regions

Principal Investigator: James Thorson
Co-Principal Investigators: James Ianelli, Loretta O’Brien
NMFS Collaborators: Liz Brooks (NE), Martin Dorn (AK), Paul Spencer (AK)

Using habitat-specific, spatial demographic information to improve stock assessments of groundfishes

Principal Investigator: Jameal Samhouri
Co-Principal Investigators: Jason Cope
External Collaborator: Scott Hamilton (Moss Landing Marine Laboratory)

Incorporating hypoxia-based habitat compression impacts into the stock assessment process for tropical pelagic billfish and tuna

Principal Investigator: Eric Prince
Co-Principal Investigators: Heidi Dewar (SW)
External Collaborator: John Hoolihan (University of Miami), Jiangang Luo (University of Miami), David Die (University of Miami), Mark Maunder (IATTC), and Phillip Goodyear (Independent Scientist)

2014

Prioritizing spawning habitats in terms of their relative contribution to recruitment success

Principal Investigator: John Walter
Co-Principal Investigators: Mandy Karnauskas, Nick Farmer, Skyler Sagarese
External Collaborator: Claire Paris (University of Miami)

Habitat assessment for Pacific Sardine juveniles

Principal Investigator: Russ Vetter
Co-Principal Investigators: Barbara Javor, Emmanis Dorval, Keith Sakuma

Estimating habitat-specific variability in growth rates of juvenile penaeid shrimps for incorporation into stock assessment models

Principal Investigator: Lawrence Rozas
Co-Principal Investigators: Tom Minello, Rick Hart

Integrating Habitat Information into Stock Assessments to Maximize Precision: A Case Study Using Data from the Annual Sea Scallop Survey Provided by HabCamV4, an Integrated Habitat Mapping Camera and Acoustics System

Principal Investigator: Dvora Hart
Co-Principal Investigators: Robert Johnston, Burton Shank, Tom Noji, Richard Langton, Vincent Guida
External Collaborator: Scott Gallager (Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute), Joe Futrelle (Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute), Amber York (Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute), Larry Mayer (University of New Hampshire)

Physiological ecology and habitat suitability: combining experiments and surveys to inform stock assessments

Principal Investigator: Jon Hare
Co-Principal Investigators: John Manderson, David Richardson, Mark Wuenschel
External Collaborator: Grace Saba (Rutgers)

Identifying essential spawning habitats for improving assessment and management of the market squid fishery off California

Principal Investigator: Emmanis Dorval
Co-Principal Investigators: Kevin Piner, Brian Wells, Jenny McDaniel

2013

Integrating spatial habitat and fisheries effort data to improve abundance estimates of west coast groundfish

Principal Investigator: Andrew Shelton
Co-Principal Investigators: Eric Ward, James Thorson, Marlene Bellman, Blake Feist

Evaluating Smooth Sheet Bathymetry for Determining Trawlable and Untrawlable Habitats

Principal Investigator: Wayne Palsson
Co-Principal Investigators: Mark Zimmerman

Evaluating the use of acoustic bottom typing to inform bottom trawl survey catchability models for snow crab in the eastern Bering Sea

Principal Investigator: Robert McConnaughey
Co-Principal Investigators: David Somerton

Identifying habitat use by male and female red king crabs during mating season

Principal Investigator: Chris Long
Co-Principal Investigators: Katherine Swiney

Predictive modeling of habitat distribution to support expansion of fishery-independent survey efforts: laying the groundwork to reduce uncertainty in stock assessments

Principal Investigator: Todd Kellison
Co-Principal Investigators: Nate Bacheler, Tim Battista, Bryan Costa, Brian Kinlan, Chris Taylor

Improving the identification of directed fishing effort when calculating CPUE using the relationship between habitat and reef fish abundance derived from fishery independent surveys

Principal Investigator: Doug DeVries
Co-Principal Investigators: Chris Gardner, Steven Saul

2012

Spatially Predictive Modelling and Mapping of Groundfish Species to Advance Stock and Habitat Assessments Relevant to SW Habitat Blueprint Regional Initiative

Principal Investigator: Mary Yoklavich
Co-Principal Investigators: David Huff
External Collaborator: Milton Love (University of California Santa Barbara)

Estimating habitat related variability in natural mortality of juvenile white shrimp for incorporation into stock assessment models

Principal Investigator: Lawrence Rozas
Co-Principal Investigators: Rick Hart
External Collaborator: Marvin Mace (University of Louisiana at Lafayette)

Accounting for habitat-dependent observation error in bottom trawl survey indices for pelagic stocks using butterfish (Peprilus triacanthus) as a model

Principal Investigator: John Manderson
Co-Principal Investigators: David Richardson, Jonathan Hare, John Quinlan
External Collaborator: Nikitas Georgas (Stevens Institute), Josh Kohut (Rutgers)

Locating essential spawning grounds for red king crab in the eastern Bering Sea

Principal Investigator: Chris Long

Defining eco-regions and applying spatial analyses of species abundance, community dynamics and stock substructure to incorporate habitat in SSMs and MSMs

Principal Investigator: Anne Hollowed
Co-Principal Investigators: Kerim Aydin, Matthew Baker, Kirstin Holsman
External Collaborator: Trevor Branch (University of Washington)

Estimation of habitat-stratified catch efficiency of fishery-independent reef fish survey methodologies to improve estimates of stock size

Principal Investigator: Gerard DiNardo
Co-Principal Investigator: Benjamin Richards, Jake Asker, Ivor Williams, Jon Brodziak

2011

Incorporating environmental and habitat characteristics into the brown shrimp stock assessment for the northern Gulf of Mexico

Principal Investigator: Thomas Minello
Co-Principal Investigators: Rick Hart, James Nance, William Grant, Jennifer Leo
External Collaborators: William Grant (Texas A&M)

Detecting an environmental gradient in maturity, spawning rates, and fecundity of inshore winter flounder stocks: does thermal habitat create spatial heterogeneity of life history parameters within stock boundaries?

Principal Investigator: Richard McBride

Incorporating measures of habitat area into stock assessments: a case study with winter flounder and summer flounder

Principal Investigator: Jon Hare
Co-Principal Investigators: John Manderson

2010

Relating Population Abundance of Groundfish Species to Habitats Using Predictive Models and Broad-scale Seafloor Maps

Principal Investigator: Mary Yoklavich
Co-Principal Investigator: Lisa Wedding

Habitat Modeling of Atlantic Blue Marlin with SEAPODYM and Satellite Tags

Principal Investigator: Michael J. Schirripa
Co-Principal Investigator: Eric Prince
External Collaborators: Jiangang Luo (University of Miami), Patrick Lehodey (CLS)

Incorporating Sediment and Hydrography Data in Assessments for Tilefish and Lobster

Principal Investigator: John A. Quinlan
Co-Principal Investigator: John F. Walter
External Collaborator: Yong Chen (University of Maine)