Long-term fishery-independent surveys provide a wealth of information on fisheries stocks that inform stock assessments. One of the strengths of these surveys is that the design and methods are consistent through time. However, maintaining an unchanged time series can pose several potential issues as management needs change resulting in the need to alter either the survey design or its spatial extent. In the United States Gulf...

The Southeast Area Monitoring and Assessment Program (SEAMAP) Bottom Longline (BLL) survey was established to provide a nearshore complement to the offshore National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) BLL survey. SEAMAP state partners (i.e., Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama) used identical gear and sampling protocol to NMFS; however, temporal window, sampling universe, sampling frequency, and station selection were dete...

A combination of stomach contents, nitrogen stable‐isotope and tissue C:N values are presented to demonstrate feeding activity of Atlantic bluefin tuna Thunnus thynnus on the Gulf of Mexico (GOMEX) spawning grounds. Diets include teleosts, cephalopods, crustaceans and a pelagic tunicate ( Pyrosoma atlanticum ). Results reveal the need to classify the GOMEX as a T. thynnus feeding ground.