Weekly survey of fish sold by the roadside in Moorea, French Polynesia in 2014 and 2015 (Coral reef fishery project) (NCEI Accession 0277331)

Acquisition Description:
Each Sunday morning from June 2014 through November 2015, an observer surveyed fish being sold along the roadside on the island of Moorea. On each survey date, the observer drove along the ring road which circles the islands along the shoreline, stopping to interview anyone selling fish by the road. With the permission of the seller, the observer photographed the fish for sale, which were typically presented on strings hanging from large racks. The observer also asked a series of questions to the seller about how the fish were caught.

Participation in this survey was voluntary, and so the catch reported here does not represent a complete sample of fish being sold by the roadside. A single observer performed all surveys, so a few Sundays in this period were not sampled because of logistical constraints

Fish in each photograph were identified to the highest taxonomic resolution possible, often to species but usually at least genus. The size of each fish was estimated by drawing a line from nose to tail and then comparing the length of that line to the length of a 0.5 m sizing bar that was included in each photograph. Image analyses were performed in the computer program “imageJ” (Rasband, NIH) and species identities and sizes have been merged together with the survey responses of the fish sellers in the data set provided.