Southeast
Southeast
The southeastern United States is home to the largest concentration of saltwater recreational fishing in America. Whether seeking iconic fish to catch for sport or for sustenance, recreational fishing in the Southeast generates more than $15 billion in sales annually for more than 4.5 million fishermen taking more than 36 million fishing trips every year.
Covering a vast area from Texas to North Carolina and the U.S. Caribbean, the Southeast has the largest wetland acreage and the largest coral reef track in the contiguous United States and provides the only known calving grounds for the highly endangered North Atlantic Right Whale. Right whales travel here in the fall to give birth off the eastern coast of Florida.
Right whales aren’t alone though—bottlenose dolphins, sea turtles, a variety of corals, sawfish and Atlantic sturgeon are also residents of our region. This variety creates unique viewing opportunities, experiences, and even challenges for those living in and visiting our region.
Together, NOAA Fisheries Southeast Regional Office and Southeast Fisheries Science Center work to protect our marine life and their habitat, offering sound science to help inform management decisions in an ever-changing environment.
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Conservation & Management
Featured Species
Management Overview
Unlike the rest of the United States, NOAA Fisheries in the Southeast works with three different fishery management councils; the South Atlantic, the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean. Together with our scientists, our fishery managers work with these councils to make science-based decisions, decisions that protect our marine resources and conserve their habitats.
Highlights
Commercial Fishing
We coordinate and oversee fishing regulations for federal waters in the South Atlantic, Gulf of Mexico, and Caribbean.
Learn more about commercial fishing
Recreational Fishing
The Southeast is home to the largest concentration of saltwater recreational fishing activity in the United States. The recreational fishing sector includes for-hire (both charter and headboat) fishermen as well as private anglers.
Learn more about recreational fishing
Protecting Marine Life
The Southeast is home to the largest concentration of saltwater recreational fishing activity in the United States. The recreational fishing sector includes for-hire (both charter and headboat) fishermen as well as private anglers.
Habitat Conservation
We seek to minimize habitat losses and the successful enhancement, restoration, and creation of fishery habitats, accommodating sustainable development while seeking no-net-loss of wetlands and other aquatic sites.
Learn more about habitat conservation
Aquaculture
As the nation's oceans agency, we take a thorough approach to sustainable aquaculture that will create employment and business opportunities in coastal communities and provide safe, sustainable seafood.
Social Sciences
We conduct applied research, analysis, and data collection on the use and management of living marine resources. This includes the use of existing fisheries data bases, field research and data collection.
Learn more about social sciences
Science Overview
Our scientists produce data, information, and advice that serves as a foundation of knowledge upon which living marine resource managers in the southeastern United States depend. They use our science to make informed decisions for maintaining healthy marine ecosystems and productive and sustainable fisheries, restoring depleted populations and damaged habitats, and recovering populations of protected, threatened, and endangered species.
Highlights
Fisheries Statistics
We coordinate with state and federal personnel in the collection of fishery dependent data. Our scientists also administer a state/federal cooperative statistics program, manage a centralized fishery information database, and monitor the catch of quota-managed species.
Sustainable Fisheries
We conduct research to determine the distribution and abundance of Atlantic highly migratory fish species and Gulf and Caribbean fisheries. Our scientists collect and analyze fishery dependent and independent data to produce catch, effort, and life history information and estimate the current status of fishery stocks, using computerized mathematical models.
Protected Species
We conduct and monitor biodiversity research and population assessments for marine mammals, sea turtles, and other threatened and endangered marine species. We monitor and coordinate data collection from stranded protected species throughout the region and analysis of the implications of strandings for management and conservation of the affected species.
Economics and Social Science
We conduct applied socioeconomic and cultural research on the use and management of living marine resources under southeast federal jurisdiction. We interpret available fisheries information from an economic and cultural perspective, develop models and estimates relationships to evaluate the economic effects of fishery policies, and evaluate the sociocultural effects of fishery policies on fishermen and fishing communities.
Research Activities
Sustainable Fisheries Division - Southeast Social Science Branch
Pardon our dust! We are in the process of transitioning websites. For the most up-to-date and comprehensive information about Social Science efforts in the Gulf of Mexico, South Atlantic, and Caribbean please click here . The Southeast Regional...