The data were sampled in Sabine Lake, Galveston Bay, Matagorda Bay, San Antonio Bay, Aransas Bay, Corpus Christi Bay, the upper Laguna Madre, and the lower Laguna Madre from January 1982 to December 2016 (except in Sabine Lake, where sampling begun in January 1986). The surveys were conducted bi-weekly using bag seines (18.3 m long and 1.8 m deep with 19 mm stretched nylon mesh in wings and 13 mm stretched mesh in the bag), which were deployed along the shoreline. Bag seines were deployed multiple times during the first and second halves of the month in every bay system. The location of each sample was determined by randomly selecting one station from a predefined sampling universe and, once in the field, selecting a section of available shoreline within that station. At the selected sampling location, the bag seine was extended 12.2 m perpendicularly to the shoreline, then pulled parallel to the shoreline over 15.5 m. The offshore end was then retrieved to shore while keeping the onshore end stationary and maintaining the full extent (12.2 m) of the bag seine using a limit line. Organisms greater than 5 mm in total length were identified to the lowest taxonomic level.  Further details of sampling protocols are described in the Marine Resource Monitoring Operations Manual (PDF). 

Note: All station_id numbers are included at least once in this dataset (e.g. some organisms were observed at every station/sampling event).