National Coral Reef Monitoring Program: Assessment of fish communities in the Dry Tortugas during 2014

This dataset includes observations of reef fish near the Dry Tortugas in 2014. Data were sourced from the SEFSC Data Portal and aligned to Darwin Core. This data is a subset of data from an ongoing project that includes data from other regions and years and is dependent on the sampling design. Data were collected by divers conducting reef visual census (RVC) fish surveys and habitat assessments at 436 sites in the Dry Tortugas. NOAA Southeast Fisheries Science Center (SEFSC) divers collaborated with the University of Miami and the Rosenstiel School of Marine & Atmospheric Science (RSMAS), Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary (FKNMS), Florida Fish and Wildlife Department/Fish and Wildlife Research Institute (FWRI), State of Florida, Nova Southeastern University, and the National Park Service (South Florida and Caribbean Network). Data are used to assess population and habitat trends (e.g., whether species are overfished), ecosystem responses to fisheries management actions, including determining the effectiveness of no-take marine protected areas (MPAs) and benthic community and coral demographics.