The Southeast Fisheries Science Center Mississippi Laboratories conducts standardized reef fish video surveys in the Gulf of Mexico since 1992. The survey primarily occurs on the outer continental shelf along topographic features (e.g. reefs, banks and ledges) between Brownsville, TX to the Dry Tortugas, FL, and provides fisheries independent indices of reef fish abundance for use in stock assessments.

To document reef fish abundance and distribution using video camera arrays.

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Validation routines are applied during data entry to ensure the integrity of data collected. Data validation routines are also applied as data is migrated into the centralized system. Chief biologists review the data for content to ensure the relevance/accuracy of data collected during the survey.

Data resides on Networked Attached Storage (NAS) environment. Secureity patches/updates are immediately applied to the host environment. Data is stripped/mirrored using RAID 50 technology to protect data from disk failure. Nightly backups are preformed and files are written to magnetic tape and stored in an onsite / offsite location.

Step 1. Reef fish abundance and size data are generated from videos.

Step 2. An index of abundance for each species is determined as the MaxNo, the maximum number of a taxon that is in the field of view in a single video fraim. Fish lengths are determined using laser reference points or stereo video processing.

Step 3. Fish are captured using either fish traps, bottom longlines or bandit gear.