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Inshore Research and Monitoring

Florida’s coastline extends from subtropical to temperate regions and includes habitats such as seagrass beds, salt marshes, oyster reefs, and mangroves. These habitats provide critical nursery areas for many fish and invertebrate species. It is estimated that more than 70% of the recreationally-important species and more than 90% of the commercially-important species in the Gulf of Mexico are estuarine-dependent during at least one stage of their life histories (Lindall and Saloman 1977). The entire suite of gears and methods used by the FIM program captures fishes at various stages of development, from initial recruitment into the estuary through harvestable sizes, thereby providing a continuous gauge of a particular stock’s relative abundance, age and size composition, and reproductive potential.

FIM program data are summarized and analyzed for all fish and selected invertebrate species collected, yielding information on the relative abundance, recruitment, habitat use, and distribution of hundreds of estuarine and marine species.

Research

Two men and a woman stand next to a white tray holding lots of small fish. They are measuring some of the fish with small rulers.

Videos

MarineQuest Virtual Content

MarineQuest virtual event banner.

MarineQuest is the annual open house of the FWC Fish and Wildlife Research Institute. Normally an in-person event, MarineQuest was held virtually in 2020 and 2021. View FIM content recorded as part of the virtual events.

Inshore Fisheries Monitoring
two men and one woman in water with net
Marine Fisheries Research
A woman is sitting at a microscope looking through the eyepiece.
In the Field with FIM
Two men and a woman in waist-deep water are pulling in a net.

Science Snippets

Check out "Science Snippets," where we join FWRI scientists as they turn the camera on themselves to share research insights and interesting science facts.

Bulll shark pup
A man standing at a lab counter holding a shark.
Fish ID
A man is sitting on a counter holding a petri dish filled with small fish while talking to the camera.
FIM in the field
A man and woman are standing in waist-deep water holding a net full of fish.
Protandric hermaphrodites
A man standing at a lab counter is holding the organs cut from the inside of a fish.

FIM Annual Reports

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission’s Fisheries Independent Monitoring (FIM) program conducts monthly sampling of fish and select invertebrate species in most of the major estuaries and rivers throughout Florida.  Sampling effort and catch are summarized each year into a FIM Annual Report. Additionally, population trends of key inshore species are updated annually.