Sandbar Shark Young-of-the-Year Observations from Texas Gulf Coast Surveys

Fishery-independent and fishery-dependent data from multiple decades, with a specific 10-year series from a recreational tournament, document the presence of young-of-the-year sandbar sharks off the Texas coast. The data, presented in a PDF, were collected by the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department and recreational anglers. The dataset was authored by Kesley Gibson-Banks and last updated on May 4, 2026.

Use Cases

• Identifying potential nursery areas based on the frequency and seasonality of young-of-the-year sharks.
• Assessing population recovery indicators for sandbar sharks, a species with a rebuilding plan.
• Evaluating the utility of citizen science data from recreational shark tournaments for fishery monitoring.
• Comparing shark nursery habitats between the Atlantic coast and the Gulf of Mexico.

Strengths

• Data integrates multiple sources, including decades-long fishery-independent surveys and a 10-year recreational tournament series.
• The dataset is openly licensed under CC-BY-4.0 for reuse.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• The primary data file is a 812.4 KB PDF, which may require extraction to a structured format for analysis.

Provenance

Source

Texas Parks and Wildlife Department estuarine gillnet surveys and recreational shore-based shark anglers.

Collection Method

Fishery-independent surveys (estuarine gillnet, SEAMAP coastal, NMFS offshore longlines) and fishery-dependent data from a recreational shark tournament.

Time Range

Multiple decades for some surveys, with a 10-year series from the recreational tournament.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-05-04 10:17:49; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Nearshore and estuarine waters of the Texas coast, Western Gulf of Mexico.