Baseline assessment of Fish and Coral bays, St. John, U.S. Virgin Islands in support of watershed restoration activities, part I: fish, coral and benthic habitats

This report provides baseline biological data on fishes, corals and habitats in Coral and Fish Bays, St. John, USVI. A similar report with data on nutrients and contaminants in the same bays is planned to be completed in 2013. Data from NOAA’s long-term Caribbean Coral Reef Ecosystem Monitoring program was compiled to provide a baseline assessment of corals, fishes and habitats from 2001 to 2010, data needed to assess the impacts of erosion control projects installed from 2010 to 2011. The baseline data supplement other information collected as part of the USVI Watershed Stabilization Project, a project funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 and distributed through the NOAA Restoration Center, but uses data which is not within the scope of ARRA funded work. We present data on 16 ecological indicators of fishes, corals and habitats. These indicators were chosen because of their sensitivity to changes in water quality noted in the scientific literature (e.g., Rogers 1990, Larsen and Webb 2009). We report long-term averages and corresponding standard errors, plot annual averages, map indicator values and list inventories of coral and fish species identified among surveys. Similar data will be needed in the future to make rigorous comparisons and determine the magnitude of any impacts from watershed stabilization.

Shallow-water benthic habitats of southwest Puerto Rico

This report describes the creation and assessment of benthic habitat maps for shallow-water (<30m) marine environments of the Guánica/Parguera and Finca Belvedere Natural Reserve in southwest Puerto Rico. The objective was to provide spatially-explicit information on the habitat types, biological cover and live coral cover of the region’s coral reef ecosystem. These fine-scale habitat maps, generated by interpretation of 2010 satellite imagery, provide an update to NOAA’s previous digital maps of the U.S. Caribbean (Kendall et al., 2001) for these areas. Updated shallow-water benthic habitat maps for the Guánica/Parguera region are timely in light of ongoing restoration efforts in the Guánica Bay watershed. The bay is served directly by one river, the Rio Loco, which flows intermittently and more frequently during the rainy season. The watershed has gone through a series of manipulations and alterations in past decades, mainly associated with agricultural practices, including irrigation systems, in the upper watershed. The Guánica Lagoon, previously situated to the north of the bay, was historically the largest freshwater lagoon in Puerto Rico and served as a natural filter and sediment sink prior to the discharge of the Rio Loco into the Bay. Following alterations by the Southwest Water Project in the 1950s, the Lagoon’s adjacent wetland system was ditched and drained; no longer filtering and trapping sediment from the Rio Loco. Land use in the Guánica Bay/Rio Loco watershed has also gone through several changes (CWP, 2008). Similar to much of Puerto Rico, the area was largely deforested for sugar cane cultivation in the 1800s, although reforestation of some areas occurred following the cessation of sugar cane production (Warne et al., 2005). The northern area of the watershed is generally mountainous and is characterized by a mix of forested and agricultural lands, particularly coffee plantations. Closer to the coast, the Lajas Valley Agricultural Reserve extends north of Guánica Bay to the southwest corner of the island. The land use practices and watershed changes outlined above have resulted in large amounts of sediment being distributed in the Rio Loco river valley (CWP, 2008). Storm events and seasonal flooding also transport large amounts of sediment to the coastal waters. The threats of upstream watershed practices to coral reefs and the nearshore marine environment have been gaining recognition. Guánica Bay, and the adjacent marine waters, has been identified as a “management priority area” by NOAA’s Coral Reef Conservation Program (CRCP, 2012). In a recent Guánica Bay watershed management plan, several critical issues were outlined in regards to land-based sources of pollution (LBSP; CWP, 2008). These include: upland erosion from coffee agriculture, filling of reservoirs with sediment, in-stream channel erosion, loss of historical Guánica lagoon, legacy contaminants and sewage treatment (CWP, 2008). The plan recommended several management actions that could be taken to reduce impacts of LBSP, which form the basis of Guánica watershed restoration efforts.

A baseline assessment of the ecological resources of Jobos Bay, Puerto Rico

This baseline assessment of Jobos Bay and surrounding marine ecosystems consists of a two part series. The first report (Zitello et al., 2008) described the characteristics of the Bay and its watershed, including modeling work related to nutrients and sediment fluxes, based on existing data. The second portion of this assessment, presented in this document, presents the results of new field studies conducted to fill data gaps identified in previous studies, to provide a more complete characterization of Jobos Bay and the surrounding coral reef ecosystems. Specifically, the objective was to establish baseline values for the distribution of habitats, nutrients, contaminants, fi sh, and benthic communities. This baseline assessment is the first step in evaluating the effectiveness in changes in best management practices in the watershed. This baseline assessment is part of the Conservation Effects Assessment Project (CEAP), which is a multi-agency effort to quantify the environmental benefits of conservation practices used by agricultural producers participating in selected U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) conservation programs. Partners in the CEAP Jobos Bay Special Emphasis Watershed (SEW) included USDA’s Agricultural Research Service (ARS) and the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the Government of Puerto Rico. The project originated from an on-going collaboration between USDA and NOAA on the U.S. Coral Reef Task Force. The Jobos Bay watershed was chosen because the predominant land use is agriculture, including agricultural lands adjacent to the Jobos Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve (JBNERR or Reserve), one of NOAA’s 26 National Estuarine Research Reserves (NERR). This report is organized into six chapters that represent a suite of interrelated studies. Chapter 1 provides a short introduction to Jobos Bay, including the land use and hydrology of the watershed. Chapter 2 is focused on benthic mapping and provides the methods and results of newly created benthic maps for Jobos Bay and the surrounding coral reef ecosystem. Chapter 3 presents the results of new surveys of fish, marine debris, and reef communities of the system. Chapter 4 is focused on the distribution of chemical contaminants in sediments within the Bay and corals outside of the Bay. Chapter 5 focuses on quantifying nutrient and pesticide concentrations in the surface waters at the Reserve’s System-Wide Monitoring Program (SWMP) sites. Chapter 6 is a brief summary discussion that highlights key findings of the entire suite of studies.

Integration of fisheries acoustics surveys and bathymetric mapping to characterize midwater-seafloor habitats of US Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico (2008-2010)

NOAA’s Coral Reef Conservation program (CRCP) develops coral reef management priorities by bringing together various partners to better understand threats to coral reef ecosystems with the goal of conserving, protecting and restoring these resources. Place-based and ecosystem-based management approaches employed by CRCP require that spatially explicit information about benthic habitats and fish utilization are available to characterize coral reef ecosystems and set conservation priorities. To accomplish this, seafloor habitat mapping of coral reefs around the U.S. Virgin Islands (USVI) and Puerto Rico has been ongoing since 2004. In 2008, fishery acoustics surveys were added to NOAA survey missions in the USVI and Puerto Rico to assess fish distribution and abundance in relation to benthic habitats in high priority conservation areas. NOAA’s National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science (NCCOS) have developed fisheries acoustics survey capabilities onboard the NOAA ship Nancy Foster to complement the CRCP seafloor habitat mapping effort spearheaded by the Center for Coastal Monitoring and Assessment Biogeography Branch (CCMA-BB). The integration of these activities has evolved on the Nancy Foster over the three years summarized in this report. A strategy for improved operations and products has emerged over that time. Not only has the concurrent operation of multibeam and fisheries acoustics surveys been beneficial in terms of optimizing ship time and resources, this joint effort has advanced an integrated approach to characterizing bottom and mid-water habitats and the fishes associated with them. CCMA conducts multibeam surveys to systematically map and characterize coral reef ecosystems, resulting in products such as high resolution bathymetric maps, backscatter information, and benthic habitat classification maps. These products focus on benthic features and live bottom habitats associated with them. NCCOS Centers (the Center for Coastal Fisheries and Habitat Research and the Center for Coastal Environmental Health and Biomolecular Research) characterize coral reef ecosystems by using fisheries acoustics methods to capture biological information through the entire water column. Spatially-explicit information on marine resources derived from fisheries acoustics surveys, such as maps of fish density, supports marine spatial planning strategies and decision making by providing a biological metric for evaluating coral reef ecosystems and assessing impacts from pollution, fishing pressure, and climate change. Data from fisheries acoustics surveys address management needs by providing a measure of biomass in management areas, detecting spatial and temporal responses in distribution relative to natural and anthropogenic impacts, and identifying hotspots that support high fish abundance or fish aggregations. Fisheries acoustics surveys conducted alongside multibeam mapping efforts inherently couple water column data with information on benthic habitats and provide information on the heterogeneity of both benthic habitats and biota in the water column. Building on this information serves to inform resource managers regarding how fishes are organized around habitat structure and the scale at which these relationships are important. Where resource managers require place-based assessments regarding the location of critical habitats along with high abundances of fish, concurrent multibeam and fisheries acoustics surveys serve as an important tool for characterizing and prioritizing coral reef ecosystems. This report summarizes the evolution of fisheries acoustics surveys onboard the NOAA ship Nancy Foster from 2008 to 2010, in conjunction with multibeam data collection, aimed at characterizing benthic and mid-water habitats in high priority conservation areas around the USVI and Puerto Rico. It also serves as a resource for the continued development of consistent data products derived from acoustic surveys. By focusing on the activities of 2010, this report highlights the progress made to date and illustrates the potential application of fisheries data derived from acoustic surveys to the management of coral reef ecosystems.

An ecological characterization of the marine resources of Vieques, Puerto Rico Part II: Field studies of habitats, nutrients, contaminants, fish, and benthic communities

Since the 1940s, portions of the Island of Vieques, Puerto Rico have been used by the United States Navy (USN) as an ammunition support detachment and bombing and maneuver training range. In April 2001, the USN began phasing out military activities on the island and transferring military property to the U.S. Department of the Interior, the Municipality of Vieques, and the Puerto Rico Conservation Trust. A small number of studies have been commissioned by the USN in the past few decades to assess selected components of the coral reef ecosystem surrounding the island; however, these studies were generally of limited geographic scope and short duration. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science (NCCOS), in consultation with NOAA’s Office of Response and Restoration (OR&R) and other local and regional experts, conducted a more comprehensive characterization of coral reef ecosystems, contaminants, and nutrient distribution patterns around Vieques. This work was conducted using many of the same protocols as ongoing monitoring work underway elsewhere in the U.S. Caribbean and has enabled comparisons among coral reef ecosystems in Vieques and other locations in the region. This characterization of Vieques’ marine ecosystems consists of a two part series. First, available information on reefs, fish, birds, seagrasses, turtles, mangroves, climate, geology, currents, and human uses from previous studies was gathered and integrated into a single document comprising Part I of this two part series (Bauer et al. 2008). For Part II of the series, presented in this document, new field studies were conducted to fill data gaps identified in previous studies, to provide an island-wide characterization, and to establish baseline values for the distribution of habitats, nutrients, contaminants, fish, and benthic communities. An important objective underlying this suite of studies was to quantify any differences in the marine areas adjacent to the former and current land-use zoning around Vieques. Specifically of interest was the possibility that either Naval (e.g., practice bombing, munitions storage) or civilian activities (e.g., sewage pollutants, overfishing) could have a negative impact on adjacent marine resources. Measuring conditions at this time and so recently after the land transfer was essential because present conditions are likely to be reflective of past land-use practices. In addition, the assessment will establish benchmark conditions that can be influenced by the potentially dramatic future changes in land-use practices as Vieques considers its development. This report is organized into seven chapters that represent a suite of interrelated studies. Chapter 1 provides a short introduction to the island setting, the former and current land-use zoning, and how the land zoning was used to spatially stratify much of the sampling. Chapter 2 is focused on benthic mapping and provides the methods, accuracy assessment, and results of newly created benthic maps for Vieques. Chapter 3 presents the results of new surveys of fish, marine debris, and reef communities on hardbottom habitats around the island. Chapter 4 presents results of flora and fauna surveys in selected bays and lagoons. Chapter 5 examines the distribution of nutrients in lagoons, inshore, and offshore waters around the island. Chapter 6 is focused on the distribution of chemical contaminants in sediments and corals. Chapter 7 is a brief summary discussion that highlights key findings of the entire suite of studies.

Microbial community analysis of Acropora palamata mucus swabs, water and sediment samples from Hawksnest Bay, St. John, U.S. Virgin Islands

Colonies of the scleractinian coral Acropora palmata, listed as threatened under the US Endangered Species Act in 2006, have been monitored in Hawksnest Bay, within Virgin Islands National Park, St. John, from 2004 through 2010 by scientists with the US Geological Survey, National Park Service, and the University of the Virgin Islands. The focus has been on documenting the prevalence of disease, including white band, white pox (also called patchy necrosis and white patches), and unidentified diseases (Rogers et al., 2008; Muller et al., 2008). In an effort to learn more about the pathologies that might be involved with the diseases that were observed, samples were collected from apparently healthy and diseased colonies in July 2009 for analysis. Two different microbial assays were performed on Epicentre Biotechnologies DNA swabs containing A. palmata coral mucus, and on water and sediment samples collected in Hawksnest Bay. Both assays are based on polymerase chain reaction (PCR) amplification of portions of the small rRNA gene (16S). The objectives were to determine 1) if known coral bacterial pathogens Serratia marcescens (Acroporid Serratiosis), Vibrio coralliilyticus (temperature-dependent bleaching, White Syndrome), Vibrio shiloi (bleaching, necrosis), and Aurantimonas coralicida (White Plague Type II) were present in any samples, and 2) if there were any differences in microbial community profiles of each healthy, unaffected or diseased coral mucus swab. In addition to coral mucus, water and sediment samples were included to show ambient microbial populations. In the first test, PCR was used to separately amplify the unique and diagnostic region of the 16S rRNA gene for each of the coral pathogens being screened. Each pathogen test was designed so that an amplified DNA fragment could be seen only if the specific pathogen was present in a sample. A positive result was indicated by bands of DNA of the appropriate size on an agarose gel, which separates DNA fragments based on the size of the molecule. DNA from pure cultures of each of the pathogens was used as a positive control for each assay.

Palmyra Atoll coral reef habitat mapping completion report

The United States Coral Reef Task Force (USCRTF) was established in 1998 by Presidential Executive Order 13089 to lead U.S. efforts to preserve and protect coral reef ecosystems. Current, accurate, and consistent maps greatly enhance efforts to preserve and manage coral reef ecosystems. With comprehensive maps and habitat assessments, coral reef managers can be more effective in designing and implementing a variety of conservation measures, including: • Long-term monitoring programs with accurate baselines from which to track changes; • Place-based conservation measures such as marine protected areas (MPAs); and • Targeted research to better understand the oceanographic and ecological processes affecting coral reef ecosystem health. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) National Ocean Service (NOS) is tasked with leading the coral ecosystem mapping element of the U.S. Coral Reef Task Force (CRTF) under the authority of the Presidential Executive Order 13089 to map and manage the coral reefs of the United States.

Ecological condition of coastal ocean waters along the U.S. Mid-Atlantic Bight: 2006

In May 2006, the NOAA National Ocean Service (NOS), in conjunction with the EPA National Health and Environmental Effects Laboratory (NHEERL), conducted an assessment of the status of ecological condition of soft-bottom habitat and overlying waters throughout the mid-Atlantic Bight (MAB) portion of the eastern U.S. continental shelf. The study area encompassed the region from Cape Cod, MA and Nantucket Shoals in the northeast to Cape Hatteras in the south, and was defined using a one nautical mile buffer of the shoreline extended seaward to the shelf break (~100-m depth contour). A total of 50 stations were targeted for sampling using standard methods and indicators applied in prior NOAA coastal studies and EPA’s Environmental Monitoring and Assessment Program (EMAP) and National Coastal Assessment (NCA). A key feature adopted from these studies was the incorporation of a random probabilistic sampling design. Such a design provides a basis for making unbiased statistical estimates of the spatial extent of ecological condition relative to various measured indicators and corresponding thresholds of concern. Indicators included multiple measures of water quality, sediment quality, and biological condition (benthic fauna). Through coordination with the NOAA Fisheries Service/Northeast Fisheries Science Center (NFS/NEFSC), samples of summer flounder (Paralichthys dentatus) also were obtained from 30 winter 2007 bottom-trawl survey stations in overlapping portions of the study area and used for analysis of chemical-contaminant body burdens.

Moderate-depth benthic habitats of St. John, U.S. Virgin Islands

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Center for Coastal Monitoring and Assessment’s (CCMA) Biogeography Branch and the U.S. National Park Service (NPS) have completed mapping the moderate-depth marine environment south of St. John. This work is an expansion of ongoing mapping and monitoring efforts conducted by NOAA and NPS in the U.S. Caribbean. The standardized protocols used in this effort will enable scientists and managers to quantitatively compare moderate-depth coral reef ecosystems around St. John to those throughout the U.S. Territories. These protocols and products will also help support the effective management and conservation of the marine resources within the National Park system.

An assessment of polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) in sediments and bivalves of the U.S. coastal zone

NOAA’s Mussel Watch Program was designed to monitor the status and trends of chemical contamination of U.S. coastal waters, including the Great Lakes. The Program began in 1986 and is one of the longest running, continuous coastal monitoring programs that is national in scope. NOAA established Mussel Watch in response to a legislative mandate under Section 202 of Title II of the Marine Protection, Research and Sanctuaries Act (MPRSA) (33 USC 1442). In addition to monitoring contaminants throughout the Nation’s coastal shores, Mussel Watch stores samples in a specimen bank so that trends can be determined retrospectively for new and emerging contaminants of concern. In recent years, flame retardant chemicals, known as polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs), have generated international concern over their widespread distribution in the environment, their potential to bioaccumulate in humans and wildlife, and concern for suspected adverse human health effects. The Mussel Watch Program, with additional funding provided by NOAA’s Oceans and Human Health Initiative, conducted a study of PBDEs in bivalve tissues and sediments. This report, which represents the first national assessment of PBDEs in the U.S. coastal zone, shows that they are widely distributed. PBDE concentrations in both sediment and bivalve tissue correlate with human population density along the U.S. coastline. The national and watershed perspectives given in this report are intended to support research, local monitoring, resource management, and policy decisions concerning these contaminants.

The state of coral reef ecosystems of the United States and Pacific Freely Associated States: 2008

In the past decade, increased awareness regarding the declining condition of U.S. coral reefs has prompted various actions by governmental and non-governmental organizations. Presidential Executive Order 13089 created the U.S. Coral Reef Task Force (USCRTF) in 1998 to coordinate federal and state/territorial activities (Clinton, 1998), and the Coral Reef Conservation Act of 2000 provided Congressional funding for activities to conserve these important ecosystems, including mapping, monitoring and assessment projects carried out through the support of NOAA’s CRCP. Numerous collaborations forged among federal agencies and state, local, non-governmental, academic and private partners now support a variety of monitoring activities. This report shares the results of many of these monitoring activities, relying heavily on quantitative, spatially-explicit data that has been collected in the recent past and comparisons with historical data where possible. The success of this effort can be attributed to the dedication of over 270 report contributors who comprised the expert writing teams in the jurisdictions and contributed to the National Level Activities and National Summary chapters. The scope and content of this report are the result of their dedication to this considerable collaborative effort. Ultimately, the goal of this report is to answer the difficult but vital question: what is the condition of U.S. coral reef ecosystems? The report attempts to base a response on the best available science emerging from coral reef ecosystem monitoring programs in 15 jurisdictions across the country. However, few monitoring programs have been in place for longer than a decade, and many have been initiated only within the past two to five years. A few jurisdictions are just beginning to implement monitoring programs and face challenges stemming from a lack of basic habitat maps and other ecosystem data in addition to adequate training, capacity building, and technical support. There is also a general paucity of historical data describing the condition of ecosystem resources before major human impacts occurred, which limits any attempt to present the current conditions within an historical context and contributes to the phenomenon of shifting baselines (Jackson, 1997; Jackson et al., 2001; Pandolfi et al., 2005).

Major and trace element analytical methods of the National Status and Trends Program: 2000-2006

This document contains analytical methods that detail the procedures for determining major and trace element concentrations in bivalve tissue and sediment samples collected as part of the National Status and Trends Program (NS&T) for the years 2000-2006. Previously published NOAA Technical Memoranda NOS ORCA 71 and 130 (Lauenstein and Cantillo, 1993; Lauenstein and Cantillo, 1998) detail trace element analyses for the years 1984-1992 and 1993-1996, respectively, and include ancillary, histopathology, and contaminant (organic and trace element) analytical methods. The methods presented in this document for trace element analysis were utilized by the NS&T Mussel Watch and Bioeffects Projects. The Mussel Watch Project has been monitoring contaminants in bivalves and sediment for over 20 years, and is the longest active contaminant monitoring program operating in U.S. costal waters. Approximately 280 Mussel Watch sites are monitored on biennial and decadal timescales using bivalve tissue and sediment, respectively. The Bioeffects Project applies the sediment quality approach, which uses sediment contamination measurements, toxicity tests and benthic macroinfauna quantification to characterize pollution in selected estuaries and coastal embayments. Contaminant assessment is a core function of both projects. Although only one contract laboratory was used by the NS&T Program during the specified time period, several analytical methods and instruments were employed. The specific analytical method, including instrumentation and detection limit, is noted for each measurement taken and can be found at http://NSandT.noaa.gov. The major and trace elements measured by the NS&T Program include: Al, Si, Cr, Mn, Fe, Ni, Cu, Zn, As, Se, Sn, Sb, Ag, Cd, Hg, Tl and Pb.

Atlas of the shallow-water benthic habitats of American Samoa, Guam, and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) National Ocean Service (NOS) initiated a coral reef research program in 1999 to map, assess, inventory, and monitor U.S. coral reef ecosystems (Monaco et al. 2001). These activities were implemented in response to requirements outlined in the Mapping Implementation Plan developed by the Mapping and Information Synthesis Working Group (MISWG) of the Coral Reef Task Force (CRTF) (MISWG 1999). As part of the MISWG of the CRTF, NOS' Biogeography Branch has been charged with the development and implementation of a plan to produce comprehensive digital coral-reef ecosystem maps for all U.S. States, Territories, and Commonwealths within five to seven years. Joint activities between Federal agencies are particularly important to map, research, monitor, manage, and restore coral reef ecosystems. In response to the Executive Order 13089 and the Coral Reef Conservation Act of 2000, NOS is conducting research to digitally map biotic resources and coordinate a long-term monitoring program that can detect and predict change in U.S. coral reefs, and their associated habitats and biological communities. Most U.S. coral reef resources have not been digitally mapped at a scale or resolution sufficient for assessment, monitoring, and/or research to support resource management. Thus, a large portion of NOS' coral reef research activities has focused on mapping of U.S. coral reef ecosystems. The map products will provide the fundamental spatial organizing framework to implement and integrate research programs and provide the capability to effectively communicate information and results to coral reef ecosystem managers. Although the NOS coral program is relatively young, it has had tremendous success in advancing towards the goal to protect, conserve, and enhance the health of U.S. coral reef ecosystems. One objective of the program was to create benthic habitat maps to support coral reef research to enable development of products that support management needs and questions. Therefore this product was developed in collaboration with many U.S. Pacific Territory partners. An initial step in producing benthic habitat maps was the development of a habitat classification scheme. The purpose of this document is to outline the benthic habitat classification scheme and protocols used to map American Samoa, Guam and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. Thirty-two distinct benthic habitat types (i.e., four major and 14 detailed geomorphological structure classes; eight major and 18 detailed biological cover types) within eleven zones were mapped directly into a geographic information system (GIS) using visual interpretation of orthorectified IKONOS satellite imagery. Benthic features were mapped that covered an area of 263 square kilometers. In all, 281 square kilometers of unconsolidated sediment, 122 square kilometers of submerged vegetation, and 82.3 square kilometers of coral reef and colonized hardbottom were mapped.

The statistical properties of recreational catch rate data for some fish stocks off the northeast U.S. coast

Recreational fisheries in the waters off the northeast U.S. target a variety of pelagic and demersal fish species, and catch and effort data sampled from recreational fisheries are a critical component of the information used in resource evaluation and management. Standardized indices of stock abundance developed from recreational fishery catch rates are routinely used in stock assessments. The statistical properties of both simulated and empirical recreational fishery catch-rate data such as those collected by the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) Marine Recreational Fishery Statistics Survey (MRFSS) are examined, and the potential effects of different assumptions about the error structure of the catch-rate frequency distributions in computing indices of stock abundance are evaluated. Recreational fishery catch distributions sampled by the MRFSS are highly contagious and overdispersed in relation to the normal distribution and are generally best characterized by the Poisson or negative binomial distributions. The modeling of both the simulated and empirical MRFSS catch rates indicates that one may draw erroneous conclusions about stock trends by assuming the wrong error distribution in procedures used to developed standardized indices of stock abundance. The results demonstrate the importance of considering not only the overall model fit and significance of classification effects, but also the possible effects of model misspecification, when determining the most appropriate model construction.

Highly migratory shark fisheries research by the National Shark Research Consortium (NSRC), 2002-2007

The National Shark Research Consortium (NSRC) includes the Center for Shark Research at Mote Marine Laboratory, the Pacific Shark Research Center at Moss Landing Marine Laboratories, the Shark Research Program at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science, and the Florida Program for Shark Research at the University of Florida. The consortium objectives include shark-related research in the Gulf of Mexico and along the Atlantic and Pacific coasts of the U.S., education and scientific cooperation.