Survey data for producing distribution maps for the ecosystem model OSMOSE-WFS

This dataset contains all of the survey data that are used to fit statistical habitat models whose predictions are employed to produce distribution maps for the ecosystem model OSMOSE-WFS. These survey data include processed fisheries-dependent and fisheries-independent data collected all over the Gulf of Mexico using a random sampling scheme between 2000 and 2016. Fisheries-dependent and fisheries-independent data were requested to different institutes in 2016. The present dataset provides encounter/non-encounter data for specific functional groups/species/life stages, as well as the geographic coordinates (longitude, latitude) of the sites at which these encounter/non-encounter data were collected, and the year during which these data were collected. Given that some of the fisheries-dependent data included in the present dataset are confidential, the identity of the surveys (i.e., their name) is not revealed here; instead, numbers (i.e., 1, 2, 3) are provided to indicate that the data for the functional group/species/life stage under consideration come from different surveys.