Congressional Supplemental Longline Survey (2011)

The Southeast Fisheries Science Center Mississippi Laboratories conducts standardized fisheries independent resource surveys in the Gulf of Mexico, South Atlantic, and U.S. Caribbean to provide abundance and distribution information to support regional and international stock assessments. In 2010, Congress appropriated supplemental funding to expand these surveys in the Gulf of Mexico in response to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. Bottom longline stations were conducted throughout the northern Gulf of Mexico during 2011. Sampling occurred on multiple contracted fishing vessels simultaneously in the eastern, central and western Gulf of Mexico during all seasons. Data on species-specific catch rates, body lengths and sex were recorded.