| The CAGES program (Comparative Assessment of Gulf Estuarine Systems) is designed to
examine the differences between estuarine ecosystems and investigate why some are
more productive than others. The program focuses on estuarine areas important to commercial
fisheries and includes data on commercial finfish and invertebrate species, as well
as other species commonly captured in trawl sampling. This Florida dataset is a subset
of the CAGES Relational Database which is a compilation of fishery-independent data
contributed by natural resource agencies of the Gulf States (Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi,
Alabama, and Florida). This data set includes trawl and associated hydrographic data
collected under the Fisheries-Independent Monitoring (FIM) Program, part of the Fish
and Wildlife Research Institute (FWRI) of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation
Commission (FFWCC). Trawl data were used to calculate CPUE (catch per unit effort)
at each station for the years 1989 through 2005. |