SEAMAP 1982-Ichthyoplankton

"A Gulf-wide ichthyoplankton survey under tIle Southeast Area Monitoring and Assessment Program (SEAMAP) was conducted in the spring and early summer of 1982 in the Gulf of Mexico. Vessels from Mexico and the United States participated in the survey (Figure 1 and Table 1). Mexican vessels (BIP and ONJUKU) sampled Mexican waters, including a portion of the northern Caribbean off Mexico and the United States. Vessels from the National Marine Fisheries Service (OREGON II and JEFF AND TINA), Texas (WESTERN GULF), Florida (BELLOWS and HERNAN CffiTEZ), and Louisiana (small vessels designated LOUISIANA) sampled U.S. waters. Three types of nets were used: A large 60 cm bongo net was towed from the surface to 200 m or to within 5 m of the bottom in depths less than 200 m; a one-half meter ring net was used in shallow coastal waters by Louisiana vessels, and a 1 by 2 m neuston net was towed at the surface for 10 minutes by some U.S. vessels. The samples were sorted at the Polish Plankton Sorting and Identification Center in Szczecin, Poland, and the ichthyoplankton was enumerated, measured, and identified to the family level under the supervision of Ejsymont. The samples were returned to the Miami Laboratory where larvae of juvenile Scombridae and Coryphaenidae were identified to the lowest taxa possible by Potthoff, Kelley, and Richards. The data base was developed by McGowan and corrected by Kelley and Richards. The distribution and abundance charts were made by Power, and the tables for the computer data printouts were developed by Potthoff. Olvera furnished data and samples from tows taken in Mexican water in the Gulf of Mexico south of the Fishery Conservation Zone. The material is archived at the Marine Resource Laboratory of the Florida Department of Natural Resources in St. Petersburg, Florida"--Page 1, paragraph 1.