Fisheries Information Platform

Description of fishery datasets

The Fisheries Information Platform (FIP) contains non-confidential data of fishing landings and revenues for shrimp, reef fish, highly migratory species and headboat fisheries in the Gulf of Mexico (GoM). Data are provided as total or summarized by time period, species or GoM State.

Below we provide a brief description of the data available for each fishery, and give an overview of how we dealt with data confidentiality.

Shrimp fisheries

Shrimp fisheries data were derived from electronic logbooks and dealer records for the period 2014-2021. Landings and revenues are reported per trip and were matched to multiple VMS fishing pings. Fishing pings were identified using speed filters and logic rules. Dealer records provide trip-level landings. Landings and revenues for each electronic logbook ping were calculated by distributing trip-level values uniformly to each fishing ping, the most common method used in marine spatial planning (Chollett et al. 2022). Unmatched revenues and landings (corresponding to fishing activity carried out by vessels without transponders, or when transponders were off) were distributed evenly among fishing pings for that year. All revenue data were reported in 2021 dollars using the implicit price deflator by the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis. Full information for this dataset can be found in Chollett & O’Farrell (2022). Shrimp fisheries data were mapped over a 10x10 km grid and over Coastal Fisheries statistical areas (Atkinson et al. 2021).

Reef fish fisheries

Reef fish fisheries data are available from 2007 to 2021. In the GoM reef fish are fished using multiple gears: bottom longline, handlines and bandit reels, diving, buoys, gillnets, trolling, cast nets and traps. Only bottom longline, handlines and bandit reels have been mapped at high spatial resolution using Vessel Monitoring System (VMS) data that have been linked to logbooks. Spatial information for the other fisheries is only available at the spatial scale of Coastal Fisheries statistical areas (Atkinson et al. 2021), through self-reported fishing locations in logbooks.

Data for reef fish fisheries using bottom longlines, handlines and bandit reels were mapped in the FIP using VMS positions that have been linked to logbook data to extract landings and revenues. Fishing pings were identified using a supervised classification method implemented in Random Forests (Breiman 2001). Landings and revenues are reported per trip and were matched to multiple VMS fishing pings. Landings and revenues for each VMS ping were calculated by distributing trip-level values uniformly to each fishing ping. Unmatched revenues and landings were distributed evenly among fishing pings for that year. All revenue data were reported in 2021 dollars using the implicit price deflator by the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis. This dataset was first described by O’Farrell et al. (2017) and is fully described in O’Farrell et al. (in press). Bottom longline, handline and bandit reel reef fish fisheries data were mapped over a 10 x10 km grid and over Coastal Fisheries statistical areas (Atkinson et al. 2021).

Data for reef fish fisheries without linked positional data (caught using diving, buoys, gillnets and trolling) were mapped in the FIP using the self-reported Coastal Fisheries statistical areas available in the logbooks (Atkinson et al. 2021). Revenues have been adjusted to 2021 dollars using the implicit price deflator by the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis. Coastal Cast nets and Traps are small fisheries with little fishing effort, have no non-confidential data at the statistical fishing area level if we apply the rule of three and were not mapped.

Highly migratory species fisheries

Highly migratory species (HMS) are fished using multiple gears: pelagic longline, bandit, bottom longline, buoys, gillnet, green stick tuna, handlines, ottertrawl, pairtrawl, and rod and reel, but pelagic longline is by far the largest fishery in the GoM, accumulating almost 90% of logbook records from 2013 to 2021.

HMS fisheries data caught using pelagic longlines are available in the FIP from 2015 to 2021, when revenues data are available. Total revenue estimates were calculated by George Silva (NOAA’s NMFS), and are not available for specific species or species groups. For this dataset, landings and revenues are reported per set and coincide with a self-reported coordinate. We summarized total landings and revenues data into Coastal Fisheries statistical areas (Atkinson et al. 2021). Revenues have been adjusted to 2021 dollars using the implicit price deflator by the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis. Although this fishery has been recently mapped using high-spatial resolution VMS data, the data for the fishery in the GoM is too sparse and 10 x10 km grids would involve loosing about half of the data and were not considered here.

Headboat fisheries

In the Gulf, information for headboats targeting reef fish is available from 2015 to 2021. In headboats recreational fishers carry more than six passengers for half or full day trips and fishers pay by the “head” (Fitzpatrick et al. 2017). Data have been collected in the Gulf by the Beaufort Laboratory of the National Marine Fisheries Service, Southeast Fisheries Science Center (SFSC) since 1986, with an electronic logbook system since 2013 and economic data added in 2014 (Carter and Liese 2017, Fitzpatrick et al. 2017). For each trip, logbooks collect information on date and duration of the trip, geographic location of fishing activity, number of individuals of each caught species that were kept, the number of crew, number of non-fishing passengers, gallons of fuel used and price paid per gallon of fuel, among others (Fitzpatrick et al. 2017). For this fishery, only data on location, date and net revenue pr trip were provided, and therefore there are no associated landings, species or port information.

Revenue was estimated by NOAA’s SFSC (Social Science Research Group, Recreational Fisheries) as the price per angler hour multiplied by the number of anglers and trip hours. Net revenue was estimated as the revenue obtained minus fuel and crew costs, with fuel costs equalling gallons used multiplied by the price per gallon, and crew costs calculated as trip duration multiplied by wage per hour and number of crew. All information was extracted from logbooks except the price per angler hour and wage which were estimated from additional documentation¹

In the FIP all revenue data were reported in 2021 dollars using the implicit price deflator by the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis. Headboat fisheries data were mapped over a 10 x10 km grid and over Coastal Fisheries statistical areas (Atkinson et al. 2021).

¹ https://repository.library.noaa.gov/view/noaa/12007

Confidentiality issues

US fisheries data are subject to strict confidentiality. To protect the identity of any single fisher, data presented to the public should conform a criteria called “rule of three”, where locations with less than three different vessels fishing are excluded (filtered) from the final dataset. In all products in the FIP, records that did not meet the rule of three (<= three unique vessels targeting a grid cell) were removed, therefore all the layers include only non-confidential data.

Applying the rule of three implies loosing some information (Figure 1). The consequences are likely to depend on the specific fishery or data subset. In general, the higher the density of the data the less data loss. We quantified the percentage of data removed due to applying the rule of three in each layer included in the FIP. All values can be found in the tables at the end of this document.

Figure 1. In the figure, a grid overlays hypothetical fishing pings. Fishing pings have different colors to represent different vessels. The same set of pings is shown in each panel. When producing a grid and applying the rule of three, some cells and fishing pings are lost (right). For this hypothetical dataset, 11% of the pings are lost due to the rule of three.

Confidentiality tables

Table 1. Percentage of data loss (percentage of fishing pings lost) after applying the rule of three to shrimp fisheries.

Layer	Description	10 km % data lost	Statistical areas % data lost
Overall Overall Landings	Total landings (pounds) for the entire time series (2007-2021)	0.1789	0.0054
Overall Revenues	Total revenues (USD) for the entire timeseries (2007-2021)	0.1789	0.0054
Species Landings Brown shrimp	Total landings (pounds) for brown shrimp	0.1789	0.0054
Revenues Brown shrimp	Total revenues (USD) for brown shrimp	0.1789	0.0054
Landings White shrimp	Total landings (pounds) for white shrimp	0.1789	0.0054
Revenues White shrimp	Total revenues (USD) for white shrimp	0.1789	0.0054
Landings Seabobs	Total landings (pounds) for seabobs	0.1789	0.0054
Revenues Seabobs	Total revenues (USD) for seabobs	0.1789	0.0054
Landings Rock shrimp	Total landings (pounds) for rock shrimp	0.1789	0.0054
Revenues Rock shrimp	Total revenues (USD) for rock shrimp	0.1789	0.0054
Landings Trachypenaeus	Total landings (pounds) for trachypenaeus	0.1789	0.0054
Revenues Trachypenaeus	Total revenues (USD) for trachypenaeus	0.1789	0.0054
Landings Pink shrimp	Total landings (pounds) for pink shrimp	0.1789	0.0054
Revenues Pink shrimp	Total revenues (USD) for pink shrimp	0.1789	0.0054
Landings Royal red shrimp	Total landings (pounds) for royal red shrimp	0.1789	0.0054
Revenues Royal red shrimp	Total revenues (USD) for royal red shrimp	0.1789	0.0054
Time Period Landings 2007-2014	Total landings (pounds) for the period 2007 to 2014	0.5557	0.0974
Revenues 2007-2014	Total revenues (USD) for the period 2007 to 2014	0.5557	0.0974
Landings 2015-2021	Total landings (pounds) for the period 2015 to 2021	0.3207	0.0062
Revenues 2015-2021	Total revenues (USD) for the period 2015 to 2021	0.3207	0.0062
State Landings Florida	Total landings (pounds) for vessels from Florida	1.8754	0.2788
Revenues Florida	Total revenues (USD) for vessels from Florida	1.8754	0.2788
Landings Alabama	Total landings (pounds) for vessels from Alabama	1.8401	0.0095
Revenues Alabama	Total revenues (USD) for vessels from Alabama	1.8401	0.0095
Landings Mississippi	Total landings (pounds) for vessels from Mississippi	5.4603	0.5359
Revenues Mississippi	Total revenues (USD) for vessels from Mississippi	5.4603	0.5359
Landings Louisiana	Total landings (pounds) for vessels from Louisiana	0.8153	0.1655
Revenues Louisiana	Total revenues (USD) for vessels from Louisiana	0.8153	0.1655
Landings Texas	Total landings (pounds) for vessels from Texas	0.0748	0.0118
Revenues Texas	Total revenues (USD) for vessels from Texas	0.0748	0.0118

Table 2. Percentage of data loss (percentage of fishing pings lost) after applying the rule of three to bottom longline, bandit and handline reef fish fisheries.

Layer	Description	10 km % data lost	Statistical areas % data lost
Overall Overall Landings	Total landings (pounds) for the entire time series (2007-2021)	0.2112	0.014
Overall Revenues	Total revenues (USD) for the entire timeseries (2007-2021)	0.2112	0.014
Species Landings Red Snapper	Total landings (pounds) for Red Snapper	0.2112	0.014
Revenues Red Snapper	Total revenues (USD) for Red Snapper	0.2112	0.014
Landings Mid-depth snapper group	Total landings (pounds) for Mid-depth snapper group	0.2112	0.014
Revenues Mid-depth snapper group	Total revenues (USD) for Mid-depth snapper group	0.2112	0.014
Landings Shallow-water snapper group	Total landings (pounds) for Shallow-water snapper group	0.2112	0.014
Revenues Shallow-water snapper group	Total revenues (USD) for Shallow-water snapper group	0.2112	0.014
Landings Shallow-water grouper group	Total landings (pounds) for Shallow-water grouper group	0.2112	0.014
Revenues Shallow-water grouper group	Total revenues (USD) for Shallow-water grouper group	0.2112	0.014
Landings Deep-water grouper group	Total landings (pounds) for Deep-water grouper group	0.2112	0.014
Revenues Deep-water grouper group	Total revenues (USD) for Deep-water grouper group	0.2112	0.014
Revenues Tilefishes group	Total revenues (USD) for Tilefishes group	0.2112	0.014
Revenues Tilefishes group	Total revenues (USD) for Tilefishes group	0.2112	0.014
Revenues Jacks group	Total revenues (USD) for Jacks group	0.2112	0.014
Revenues Jacks group	Total revenues (USD) for Jacks group	0.2112	0.014
Revenues Triggerfishes group	Total revenues (USD) for Triggerfishes group	0.2112	0.014
Revenues Triggerfishes group	Total revenues (USD) for Triggerfishes group	0.2112	0.014
Revenues Grunts and porgies group	Total revenues (USD) for Grunts and porgies group	0.2112	0.014
Revenues Grunts and porgies group	Total revenues (USD) for Grunts and porgies group	0.2112	0.014
Revenues Coastal pelagics group	Total revenues (USD) for Coastal pelagics group	0.2112	0.014
Revenues Coastal pelagics group	Total revenues (USD) for Coastal pelagics group	0.2112	0.014
Time Period Landings 2007-2014	Total landings (pounds) for the period 2007 to 2014	0.5251	0.0275
Revenues 2007-2014	Total revenues (USD) for the period 2007 to 2014	0.5251	0.0275
Landings 2015-2021	Total landings (pounds) for the period 2015 to 2021	0.6193	0.0077
Revenues 2015-2021	Total revenues (USD) for the period 2015 to 2021	0.6193	0.0077
State Landings Florida	Total landings (pounds) for vessels from Florida	0.2012	0.0159
Revenues Florida	Total revenues (USD) for vessels from Florida	0.2012	0.0159
Landings Alabama	Total landings (pounds) for vessels from Alabama	6.584	2.8109
Revenues Alabama	Total revenues (USD) for vessels from Alabama	6.584	2.8109
Landings Mississippi	Total landings (pounds) for vessels from Mississippi	24.6902	1.0891
Revenues Mississippi	Total revenues (USD) for vessels from Mississippi	24.6902	1.0891
Landings Louisiana	Total landings (pounds) for vessels from Louisiana	3.0254	0.4506
Revenues Louisiana	Total revenues (USD) for vessels from Louisiana	3.0254	0.4506
Landings Texas	Total landings (pounds) for vessels from Texas	3.3964	0.1001
Revenues Texas	Total revenues (USD) for vessels from Texas	3.3964	0.1001

Table 3. Percentage of data loss (percentage of fishing records lost) after applying the rule of three into statistical areas to other reef fish fisheries. “NA” indicates no fisheries data for that particular subset.

Layer	Description	Diving	Buoys	Gillnet	Trolling
Overall Overall Landings	Total landings (pounds) for the entire time series (2007-2021)	8.8318	21.1111	13.8518	2.8719
Overall Revenues	Total revenues (USD) for the entire timeseries (2007-2021)	8.8318	21.1111	13.8518	2.8719
Species Landings Red Snapper	Total landings (pounds) for Red Snapper	8.8318	21.1111	13.8518	2.8719
Revenues Red Snapper	Total revenues (USD) for Red Snapper	8.8318	21.1111	13.8518	2.8719
Landings Mid-depth snapper group	Total landings (pounds) for Mid-depth snapper group	8.8318	21.1111	13.8518	2.8719
Revenues Mid-depth snapper group	Total revenues (USD) for Mid-depth snapper group	8.8318	21.1111	13.8518	2.8719
Landings Shallow-water snapper group	Total landings (pounds) for Shallow-water snapper group	8.8318	21.1111	13.8518	2.8719
Revenues Shallow-water snapper group	Total revenues (USD) for Shallow-water snapper group	8.8318	21.1111	13.8518	2.8719
Landings Shallow-water grouper group	Total landings (pounds) for Shallow-water grouper group	8.8318	21.1111	13.8518	2.8719
Revenues Shallow-water grouper group	Total revenues (USD) for Shallow-water grouper group	8.8318	21.1111	13.8518	2.8719
Landings Deep-water grouper group	Total landings (pounds) for Deep-water grouper group	8.8318	21.1111	13.8518	2.8719
Revenues Deep-water grouper group	Total revenues (USD) for Deep-water grouper group	8.8318	21.1111	13.8518	2.8719
Revenues Tilefishes group	Total revenues (USD) for Tilefishes group	8.8318	21.1111	13.8518	2.8719
Revenues Tilefishes group	Total revenues (USD) for Tilefishes group	8.8318	21.1111	13.8518	2.8719
Revenues Jacks group	Total revenues (USD) for Jacks group	8.8318	21.1111	13.8518	2.8719
Revenues Jacks group	Total revenues (USD) for Jacks group	8.8318	21.1111	13.8518	2.8719
Revenues Triggerfishes group	Total revenues (USD) for Triggerfishes group	8.8318	21.1111	13.8518	2.8719
Revenues Triggerfishes group	Total revenues (USD) for Triggerfishes group	8.8318	21.1111	13.8518	2.8719
Revenues Grunts and porgies group	Total revenues (USD) for Grunts and porgies group	8.8318	21.1111	13.8518	2.8719
Revenues Grunts and porgies group	Total revenues (USD) for Grunts and porgies group	8.8318	21.1111	13.8518	2.8719
Revenues Coastal pelagics group	Total revenues (USD) for Coastal pelagics group	8.8318	21.1111	13.8518	2.8719
Revenues Coastal pelagics group	Total revenues (USD) for Coastal pelagics group	8.8318	21.1111	13.8518	2.8719
Time Period Landings 2007-2014	Total landings (pounds) for the period 2007 to 2014	8.4287	57.6923	17.603	3.4778
Revenues 2007-2014	Total revenues (USD) for the period 2007 to 2014	8.4287	57.6923	17.603	3.4778
Landings 2015-2021	Total landings (pounds) for the period 2015 to 2021	10.5795	30.4688	22.8417	4.0679
Revenues 2015-2021	Total revenues (USD) for the period 2015 to 2021	10.5795	30.4688	22.8417	4.0679
State Landings Florida	Total landings (pounds) for vessels from Florida	6.8990	20.6704	1.3908	1.8430
Revenues Florida	Total revenues (USD) for vessels from Florida	6.8990	20.6704	1.3908	1.8430
Landings Alabama	Total landings (pounds) for vessels from Alabama	NA	100	100	18.1347
Revenues Alabama	Total revenues (USD) for vessels from Alabama	NA	100	100	18.1347
Landings Mississippi	Total landings (pounds) for vessels from Mississippi	NA	NA	NA	100
Revenues Mississippi	Total revenues (USD) for vessels from Mississippi	NA	NA	NA	100
Landings Louisiana	Total landings (pounds) for vessels from Louisiana	100	NA	100	6.5858
Revenues Louisiana	Total revenues (USD) for vessels from Louisiana	100	NA	100	6.5858
Landings Texas	Total landings (pounds) for vessels from Texas	NA	NA	NA	100
Revenues Texas	Total revenues (USD) for vessels from Texas	NA	NA	NA	100

Table 4. Percentage of data loss (percentage of fishing records lost) after applying the rule of three into statistical areas to highly migratory species fisheries. “NA” indicates no fisheries data for that particular subset.

Layer	Description	% data lost
Overall Overall Landings	Total landings (pounds) for the entire time series (2015-2021)	0.6893
Overall Revenues	Total revenues (USD) for the entire timeseries (2015-2021)	0.6893
State Landings Florida	Total landings (pounds) for vessels from Florida	1.1851
Revenues Florida	Total revenues (USD) for vessels from Florida	1.1851
Landings Alabama	Total landings (pounds) for vessels from Alabama	100
Revenues Alabama	Total revenues (USD) for vessels from Alabama	100
Landings Mississippi	Total landings (pounds) for vessels from Mississippi	100
Revenues Mississippi	Total revenues (USD) for vessels from Mississippi	100
Landings Louisiana	Total landings (pounds) for vessels from Louisiana	0.4557
Revenues Louisiana	Total revenues (USD) for vessels from Louisiana	0.4557
Landings Texas	Total landings (pounds) for vessels from Texas	100
Revenues Texas	Total revenues (USD) for vessels from Texas	100

Table 5. Percentage of data loss (percentage of fishing records lost) after applying the rule of three to headboat fisheries. “NA” indicates no fisheries data for that particular subset.

Layer	Description	% data lost
Overall Overall Net Revenues– 10 km grid	Total net revenues (USD) for the entire time series (2015-2021)	12.3578
Overall Net Revenues– statistical grid	Total net revenues (USD) for the entire time series (2015-2021)	0.7612

Fishing territories

Although the sea can look like an open landscape without boundaries, fishers' extraction of its resources is highly clustered in space, and different fishing communities have well defined fishing territories they target. Knowledge of fishing territories can be used to identify where fishing occurs, to quantify site fidelity, competition, temporal shifts in use, to assess the effects of management measures, and to allow rapid-response assessments of vulnerability of fishing-dependent communities to environmental shocks.

Fishing territories were estimated from detailed Vessel Monitoring System data that provides the position of each vessel at intervals of about 1 hour, which has been linked to logbook records recording associated counties of landing. Here, territories are identified at the spatial resolution of Counties.

Fishing territories were delineated using polygons that outline the areas where 95% of that community’s vessel activity occur in their entire fishing history.

For reef fishing (longline, handline and bandit reel), territories span the period 2007-2021. The maps were created using a Local Convex Hull method that constructs small minimum convex polygons (hulls) for each fishing position and its neighbors, and then merging the hulls together, therefore taking spatial autocorrelation into account (Getz et al. 2007). Here, we set the parameter k (the number of neighbors) to the square root of the number of observations, which is commonly advised (Signer et al. 2015, Noonan et al. 2019). This method has shown to be the most appropriate to estimate fishing territories in fishing data (Chollett et al, in review).

For shrimp, territories describe the fishery for the period 2014-2021. The maps were created using a Kernel Density Estimation method that aggregates all fishing effort into grids, and then generates a surface using a non-parametric method based on a smoothing parameter h. Kernel results are extremely sensitive to the choice of the smoothing parameter. Here, we used the automatic method smoothed cross validation (Duong 2022) to calculate a bivariate h. This method has shown to be appropriate to estimate communities-at-sea in fishing data when datasets are large (Chollett et al, in review).

All maps were aggregated at the “community” level, and represent the collective grounds of all fishers for that County. To protect data confidentiality, only communities consisting of more than three vessels were mapped.

References

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Carter DW, Liese C. 2017. Summary of economic data collected by the Gulf of Mexico and South Atlantic Headboat Logbooks: 2015. NOAA Technical Memorandum NMFS-SEFSC- 703. Miami, Florida. 34 pp.

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Chollett I, O’Farrell S. 2022. Gulf of Mexico shrimp fishery: linking ELB and dealer data to map landings and revenues. Report presented to NOAA SFSC. West of Ireland. 13 pp.

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O’Farrell S, Sanchirico JN, Chollett I, Cockrell M, Murawski SA, Watson JT, Haynie A, Strelcheck A, Perruso L. 2017. Improving detection of short-duration fishing behaviour in vessel tracks by feature engineering of training data. ICES Journal of Marine Science. 74(5):1428-36.

O’Farrell S, Perrruso L, Sanchirico JN, Chollett I. In press. Linking real world fisheries datasets for mapping of revenue from fishing grounds to dependent communities. Canadian Journal of Fisheries Sciences.

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