Data Management Plan

Oceanographic and fisheries data were collected during 1988 through 1991 through a multiagency research project to develop a remote sensing system to provide near real time image products to fishermen in the Northern Gulf of Mexico. The data included surface water temperatures, salinities, and chlorophyll samples acquired by boats and vessels and fish catch information reported by menhaden spotter pilots and vessel captains. The environmental and fisheries data were acquired concurrently with overflights of the Airborne Ocean Color Imager (AOCI) carried on a Learjet operated by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. The AOCI is a multispectral scanner and was configured with sensors to remotely sense water color in coastal and oceanic waters. The environmental and fisheries data were used to develop experimental data products that were distributed to fishermen in near real time. The study area encompassed the area from southeast of the mouth of the Mississippi River to Marsh Island, Louisiana. These are only the fisheries and environmental data. Remotely sensed data are not available.

Gulf Of Mexico (Northern)

Lineage Statement:
The locations and estimated sizes (in thousands of individuals) of menhaden schools in the northern Gulf of Mexico were recorded by spotter aircraft during the study. The location data were recorded as latitude and longitude coordinates and were taken from a Loran-C navigation system on board each aircraft. National Marine Fisheries Service field personnel located in Houma, Louisiana and Sulphur, Louisiana faxed copies of the flight records to Stennis Space Center where the data were manually entered into a database and checked for errors. Since the numbers of fish comprising each school were generally reported as ranges (e.g., 50,000 to 75,000 fish), the midpoint of the range was used as an estimate of school size. Adverse weather conditions sometimes limited the number of flights conducted by the spotter aircraft. Other schooling species were sighted by the spotter aircraft pilots but were excluded from the analysis. The AOCI imagery was processed with the Earth Resources Application Software package developed by NASA. SAS software was used to analyze the in-situ and remotely-sensed data and develop an experimental algorithm relating fish catches to chlorophyll concentrations. The algorithm was used in ELAS to generate a predictive map with an encoded coastline and graticule. Predictive values in the map were scaled from 1 to 100 to indicate a range of fishing success from low to high, respectively. The map was transferred to an electronic bulletin board where NMFS field personnel downloaded the image and distributed hardcopy versions of the data to the menhaden spotter pilots, usually by the following day.

Error traps were included in the SAS programs during the entire processing protocol to flag/catch any position data that was incorrectly coded or out of range.

Download the data from provided links

Data resides on Networked Attached Storage (NAS) environment. Security 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.