Project Name:

Ground Fish Survey Database Support Project

Project Dates: 

May 2002 to January 2003

Project Description:

The NOAA Northwest Fisheries Science Center (NWFSC) conducts an annual Ground Fish Survey off of the Western coast of the United States. The purpose of the annual Survey is to sample fish catches in specific geographical areas and to collect data to support statistical analysis of fish populations.  NOAA observers use on-board personal computers and 3^rd party software applications at sea to collect a vast amount of fish catch and event data from electronic fish meters, electronic net sensors and GPS positional instrumentation.  When the vessels return to port, data from these computers are from Microsoft Access databases to multiple MySQL databases. NWFSC used a series of Visual Basic and Perl scripts to perform in data transformation from Access to MySQL.

In order to standardize database platforms at NWFSC, Paladin proposed a migration plan to move all existing MySQL databases to a centralized Oracle database. Paladin developed a new process to consolidate all historical Survey data into a single MySQL database and then migrate the consolidated database to Oracle. As part of this process, many scripts were developed to identify and correct data errors in the MySQL and Access databases. Several additional business rules were built into the new Oracle database to ensure the accuracy of the data.

Two applications were developed as part of the project to allow NWFSC analysts and Biologists to view, edit, summarize and chart the many pieces of data related to the Ground Fish Survey. The applications were called Survey Editor and Survey Manager.

The Survey Editor tool provides the Survey team with a way to quickly view summary information, browse catch and event information, automatically identify potential errors, make notations, and manage sampling and sensor equipment related to tows as they are performed at sea. The Survey Editor is also used in port to review the activities of a previous Survey cruise.

The Survey Manager application provides Survey analysts with a way to graphically view raw sensor data collected for each haul (a haul is an event where the net is lowered and dragged on the bottom of the sea, then hauled back in.) The types of sensor data typically collected related to position, size and depth of the net; water temperature; and geographical/positional data associated with vessel and the net. Analysts use this data to calculate and plot averages and estimations of tow   performance.

Technology Used:

Oracle 9i, Microsoft Access, MySQL, Perl, Linux, Visual Basic, Visual Studio .NET, C#, ADO.NET, GDI+