Marine & Environmental Sciences Faculty Articles
Monitoring Programs of the U.S. Gulf of Mexico: Inventory, Development and Use of a Large Monitoring Database to Map Fish and Invertebrate Spatial Distributions
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
6-28-2018
Publication Title
Reviews in Fish Biology and Fisheries
Keywords
Gap analysis, Inventory, Large monitoring database, Mapping, Monitoring programs, U.S. Gulf of Mexico
ISSN
0960-3166
Abstract
Since the onset of fisheries science, monitoring programs have been implemented to support stock assessments and fisheries management. Here, we take inventory of the monitoring programs of the U.S. Gulf of Mexico (GOM) surveying fish and invertebrates and conduct a gap analysis of these programs. We also compile a large monitoring database encompassing much of the monitoring data collected in the U.S. GOM using random sampling schemes and employ this database to fit statistical models to then map the spatial distributions of 61 fish and invertebrate functional groups, species and life stages of the U.S. GOM. Finally, we provide recommendations for improving current monitoring programs and designing new programs, and guidance for more comprehensive use and sharing of monitoring data, with the ultimate goal of enhancing the inputs provided to stock assessments and ecosystem-based fisheries management (EBFM) projects in the U.S. GOM. Our inventory revealed that 73 fisheries-independent and fisheries-dependent programs have been conducted in the U.S. GOM, most of which (85%) are still active. One distinctive feature of monitoring programs of the U.S. GOM is that they include many fisheries-independent surveys conducted almost year-round, contrasting with most other marine regions. A major sampling recommendation is the development of a coordinated strategy for collecting diet information by existing U.S. GOM monitoring programs for advancing EBFM.
Additional Comments
This work was funded in part by the Florida RESTORE Act Centers of Excellence Research Grants Program, Subagreement No. 2015-01-UM-522. © Springer International Publishing AG, part of Springer Nature 2018
NSUWorks Citation
Arnaud Gruss, Holly A. Perryman, Elizabeth A. Babcock, Skyler Sagarese, James T. Thorson, Cameron H. Ainsworth, Evan John Anderson, Kenneth Brennan, Matthew D. Campbell, Mary C. Christman, Scott Cross, Michael Drexler, J. Marcus Drymon, Chris Gardner, David S. Hanisko, Jill Hendon, Christopher C. Koenig, Matthew Love, Fernando Martinez-Andrade, Jack Morris, Brandi T. Noble, Matthew A. Nuttall, Jason Osborne, Christy Pattengil-Semmens, Adam G. Pollack, Tracey Sutton, and Theodore S. Switzer. 2018. Monitoring Programs of the U.S. Gulf of Mexico: Inventory, Development and Use of a Large Monitoring Database to Map Fish and Invertebrate Spatial Distributions .Reviews in Fish Biology and Fisheries . https://nsuworks.nova.edu/occ_facarticles/928.
ORCID ID
0000-0002-5280-7071
DOI
10.1007/s11160-018-9525-2
Comments
The online version of this article ( https://doi.org/10.1007/s11160-018-9525-2) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.