Greater Amberjack Count Concludes

The Greater Amberjack Count, a multiyear research project to estimate the number of greater amberjack in the U.S. South Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico, has provided new insight into the species, the University of South Alabama (USA) announced. The count was led by Dr. Sean P. Powers, a fisheries ecology professor and director of the Stokes School of Marine and Environmental Sciences at USA. His team conducted underwater video and active acoustic surveys to estimate the abundance of greater amberjack. The data suggest the abundance estimates from the project are consistent in scale with recent assessments that greater amberjack in the Gulf are overfished despite a decades-long rebuilding effort. In contrast, the U.S. South Atlantic stock is not overfished. Tagging data revealed that the U.S. South Atlantic, eastern Gulf and western Gulf may best be managed as separate stocks. Congress appropriated $5 million to National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Fisheries and $5 million to the National Sea Grant College Program in 2020 to fund the count. With matching funds from institutions, the project totaled $11.7 million. A team of 20 scientists from more than a dozen institutions, along with two NOAA Fisheries collaborators, contributed to the study.