Abundance Survey

The Shark Population Assessment Group conducts juvenile shark sampling through the Gulf of Mexico States Shark Pupping and Nursery Area (GULFSPAN) project. Data collected through this project are used in NOAA's Sustainable Fisheries Stock Assessment and Fisheries Evaluation (SAFE) report for Atlantic Ocean and Gulf of Mexico Highly Migratory Species. Results from this project are submitted yearly to NOAA's Highly Migratory Species Office and can be found by clicking the Essential Fish Habitat Link above or navigating to the Publications link on the right.

The group is currently surveying four coastal bay systems in northwest Florida: St. Andrew Bay, Crooked Island Sound, St. Joseph Bay, Apalachicola Bay, and the gulf-side of St. Vincent Island. Trends in catch-per-unit-effort vary depending on species. For survey methodology, see: Carlson, J.K. (2002) Shark nurseries in the northeastern Gulf of Mexico. In: Shark nursery grounds of the Gulf of Mexico and the East Coast waters of the United States: an overview. C.T. McCandless, H.L. Pratt, Jr., and N.E. Kohler (Eds.). An internal report to NOAA's Highly Migratory Species Office. NOAA Narrragansett Lab, Narragansett, RI. pp. 165-182.

Other GULFSPAN participants include USM's Gulf Coast Research Laboratory (GCRL), LSU's School of the Coast and Environment, the Florida Museum of Natural History, Florida State University, and Dauphin Island Sea Lab.

There are only three other long-term shark abundance surveys off the eastern and gulf coasts of the US. The Virginia Institute of Marine Science monitors the abundance of sandbar and dusky shark from areas adjacent to the mid-Atlantic Bight. The NOAA Fisheries Service Mississippi Laboratories assesses the distribution and abundance of coastal sharks in the Gulf of Mexico and western North Atlantic. The NOAA Fisheries Service Narragansett Laboratory conducts longline surveys between Miami, FL, and southern New England.