Southeast Regional Headboat Survey
The Southeast Region Headboat Survey is a longest running data collection program in the Southeast Region, and it informs a substantial number of stock assessments through the Gulf.
At the beginning of the year, it was announced that funding is no longer available for port agents who collect dockside validation data from Headboats in Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas. The Council requested that NOAA’s Southeast Fisheries Science Center analyze and summarize the impacts of losing the Southeast Regional Headboat Survey to the fisheries management process, including stock assessments.
This was met with a lot of public testimony urging the Council, the Southeast Regional Office, and the Southeast Science Center to make budget adjustments to ensure the longest running data set to remain viable.
One of the Council members asked how many stocks does this data help in assessment and catch levels and the answer was “almost all of them”.
Over the years the budget for this program had been cut and was supplemented by various allocations of money and most recently by money allocated to the first SEFHIER program. With that we will be waiting to see the impacts of the uncertainty this will add to the data set and will continue to advocate for the continuation of this program’s viability.
(Written: April 2025)
