August - October 1998 Faunal Survey in Closed Area II, Central Georges Bank

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Frequently anticipated questions:

What does this data set describe?

Title:
August - October 1998 Faunal Survey in Closed Area II, Central Georges Bank
Abstract:
During the months of August-October, 1998, the National Marine Fisheries Service and the New England scallop industry conducted a cooperative survey of Closed Area II to assess the sea scallop population after 3.5 years of closure to all fishing. The area was closed in December 1994 to conserve fish stocks. Most of the tows are concentrated in the southern part of Closed Area II (south of 41o 30'N) and in the northernmost part (north of 41d 50'N). The central area between 41d 30' and 41d 50'N was sparsely sampled. See the location map (1998lm.pdf) for the 1998 survey. The survey results were used here to plot species distribution maps. For the species abundance maps, the data includes all tows of 9, 10 and 11 minutes duration (895 tows; ca21998srvabundA.pdf and ca21998srvabundB.txt) and excludes all replicate tows at sites where repeated tows were conducted in depletion experiments. For the species presence/absence maps, the data includes all tows (1544; ca21998srvpresabA.pdf and ca21998srvpresabB.txt ) except for those with bad navigation.
  1. How might this data set be cited?
    Rago, Paul, and Murawski, Steve, 2001, August - October 1998 Faunal Survey in Closed Area II, Central Georges Bank: Open-File Report 2001-66, U.S. Geological Survey, Woods Hole, MA.

    Online Links:

    This is part of the following larger work.

    Valentine, Page C., Malczyk, Jeremy T., and Middleton, Tammie J., 2001, Benthic habitat and faunal surveys of Closed Area II, central Georges Bank, 1998 and 1999: Open-File Report 2001-66, U.S. Geological Survey, Reston, VA.

    Online Links:

    Other_Citation_Details:
    Suggested citation: Valentine, P.C., Malczyk, J.T., and Middleton, T.J., 2001, Benthic habitat and faunal surveys of Closed Area II, central Georges Bank, 1998 and 1999: U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 2001-66, https://doi.org/10.3133/ofr0166.
  2. What geographic area does the data set cover?
    West_Bounding_Coordinate: -67.333333
    East_Bounding_Coordinate: -66.434370
    North_Bounding_Coordinate: 42.360880
    South_Bounding_Coordinate: 41.000000
  3. What does it look like?
  4. Does the data set describe conditions during a particular time period?
    Beginning_Date: Aug-1998
    Ending_Date: Oct-1998
    Currentness_Reference:
    ground condition
  5. What is the general form of this data set?
    Geospatial_Data_Presentation_Form: map, tabular data
  6. How does the data set represent geographic features?
    1. How are geographic features stored in the data set?
      This is a Point data set. It contains the following vector data types (SDTS terminology):
      • Entity point (1581)
    2. What coordinate system is used to represent geographic features?
      Horizontal positions are specified in geographic coordinates, that is, latitude and longitude. Latitudes are given to the nearest 0.000001. Longitudes are given to the nearest 0.000001. Latitude and longitude values are specified in Decimal degrees. The horizontal datum used is North American Datum of 1983.
      The ellipsoid used is Geodetic Reference System 80.
      The semi-major axis of the ellipsoid used is 6378137.0.
      The flattening of the ellipsoid used is 1/298.26.
  7. How does the data set describe geographic features?
    Dredge location
    track (Source: data)

Who produced the data set?

  1. Who are the originators of the data set? (may include formal authors, digital compilers, and editors)
    • Paul Rago
    • Steve Murawski
  2. Who also contributed to the data set?
  3. To whom should users address questions about the data?
    Page C. Valentine
    U.S. Geological Survey
    384 Woods Hole Road
    Woods Hole, MA
    USA

    508.457.2239 (voice)
    508.457.2310 (FAX)
    pvalentine@usgs.gov
    Hours_of_Service: 8 am to 5 pm

Why was the data set created?

The objectives of this cruise were to monitor the recovery of the benthic habitat in Closed Area II after four years of continual closure prior to the southern portion of the area (south of 41d30'N) being opened to scallop fishing on 15 June 1999.

How was the data set created?

  1. From what previous works were the data drawn?
    n/a (source 1 of 1)
    Murawski, Steve, and Rago, Paul, Unpublished material, 1998 Faunal Survey of Closed Area II.

    Type_of_Source_Media: computer program
    Source_Contribution: Steve Murawski and Paul Rago National Marine Fisheries Service
  2. How were the data generated, processed, and modified?
    Date: Unknown (process 1 of 2)
    The survey was conducted with commercial scallop vessels, each towing two 15-foot wide dredges at a speed of 4.5 kts for 10 minutes. Each tow covered a distance of approximately 0.75 nm or 1400 meters. In all, data were collected from 1581 stations. See the ca21998srvorigB.txt file for a tabulation of the original data. A new lefthand column of consecutive station numbers has been added to facilitate use of the data. The data include statistics on the scallop (and scallop meat) catch and on the bycatch of lobster, skates (all species combined), and 9 groundfish species (American Plaice, Atlantic Cod, Goosefish, Haddock, Summer Flounder, Windowpane Flounder, Winter Flounder, Witch Flounder, and Yellowtail Flounder). Person who carried out this activity:
    Paul Rago and Steve Murawski
    National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
    National Marine Fisheries Service
    166 Water Street
    Woods Hole, Massachusetts

    508.495.2000 (voice)
    Hours_of_Service: 8 am to 5 pm
    Date: 28-Jul-2025 (process 2 of 2)
    Remove 'ed' and 'comp' from the author names; removed pubtime elements; added tabular data as a geoform for the dataset; added the DOI link as the first link and also in the larger work citation; set the dataset publication date to the OFR publication date; fixed the larger work citation title to be the OFR title; fixed other various citation issues; added the suggested citation for the OFR; cleaned up the formatting of various sections; changed the currentness reference to ground condition; added USGS Thesaurus and ISO 19115 Topic Category keywords; changed the spatial reference to geographic to correspond with the tabular data. The original spatial reference information (probably corresponding to the map) was:
    Planar:
    Map_Projection:
    Map_Projection_Name: Mercator
    Mercator:
    Standard_Parallel: +40.0
    Longitude_of_Central_Meridian: -068.416667
    False_Easting: 0
    False_Northing: 0
    Planar_Coordinate_Information:
    Planar_Coordinate_Encoding_Method: coordinate pair
    Coordinate_Representation:
    Abscissa_Resolution: Not known
    Ordinate_Resolution: Not known
    Planar_Distance_Units: Meters
    This information had numerous errors that the information was unavailable to fix, hence the change. Added the information for the semi-major axis and denominator of glattening ratio for the geodetic mode; added an online distrbution section; fixed all errors; replaced the distribution liability with an approved FSP statement; added a generic email with contact instructions for the metadata contact; added the metadata unique identifier (PID) in the thesaurus section; updated the metadata date. No attempt was made to improve the entity and attribute section at this time. (20250728) Person who carried out this activity:
    U.S. Geological Survey
    Attn: VeeAnn A. Cross
    Marine Geologist
    384 Woods Hole Rd.
    Woods Hole, MA
    USA

    (508) 548-8700 x2251 (voice)
    (508) 457-2310 (FAX)
    vatnipp@usgs.gov
  3. What similar or related data should the user be aware of?

How reliable are the data; what problems remain in the data set?

  1. How well have the observations been checked?
    Not known
  2. How accurate are the geographic locations?
    Not known
  3. How accurate are the heights or depths?
    Not known
  4. Where are the gaps in the data? What is missing?
    Not known.
  5. How consistent are the relationships among the observations, including topology?
    Not known.

How can someone get a copy of the data set?

Are there legal restrictions on access or use of the data?
Access_Constraints None
Use_Constraints None
  1. Who distributes the data set? (Distributor 1 of 1)
    Page C. Valentine
    U.S. Geological Survey
    384 Woods Hole Road
    Woods Hole, Massachusetts
    USA

    508.457.2284 (voice)
    508.457.2310 (FAX)
    pvalentine@usgs.gov
    Hours_of_Service: 8 am to 5 pm
  2. What's the catalog number I need to order this data set? The publication is available as a single zip file that needs to be downloaded inorder to extract the contents (as of July, 2025).
  3. What legal disclaimers am I supposed to read?
    Unless otherwise stated, all data, metadata and related materials are considered to satisfy the quality standards relative to the purpose for which the data were collected. Although these data and associated metadata have been reviewed for accuracy and completeness and approved for release by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), no warranty expressed or implied is made regarding the display or utility of the data for other purposes, nor on all computer systems, nor shall the act of distribution constitute any such warranty.
  4. How can I download or order the data?
    • Availability in digital form:
      Data format: A tab delimited text file containing survey results. The transfer size reflects the zip file size of the entire publication. in format TXT Size: 182
      Network links: https://doi.org/10.3133/ofr0166
    • Cost to order the data: None

Who wrote the metadata?

Dates:
Last modified: 28-Jul-2025
Metadata author:
Page C. Valentine
U.S. Geological Survey
384 Woods Hole Road
Woods Hole, Massachusetts
USA

508.457.2239 (voice)
508.457.2310 (FAX)
whsc_data_contact@usgs.gov
Contact_Instructions:
The metadata contact email address is a generic address in the event the person is no longer with the U.S. Geological Survey.
Metadata standard:
FGDC Content Standards for Digital Geospatial Metadata (FGDC-STD-001-1998)
This page is <https://cmgds.marine.usgs.gov/catalog/whcmsc/open_file_report/ofr2001-066/98METFAU_meta.faq.html>
Generated by mp version 2.9.51 on Tue Jul 29 14:42:08 2025