The area of focus for the proposed project is fish, fisheries and fishing communities, and the projects overarching goal is operationalizing data collection and the use of genomic techniques for…

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration awarded a $1.386 million cooperative agreement to Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi on October 1, 2025, under the Gulf Coast Ecosystem Restoration Science, Observation, Monitoring, and Technology program (CFDA 11.451) to develop epigenetic ageing methods for fourteen managed Gulf of America fish species in support of accelerated stock assessments.

The project operationalizes genomic techniques and epigenetic clocks to age fish from fin clip samples, replacing traditional otolith-based ageing that takes approximately 2.5 years post-collection. The new methods will enable rapid, accurate, precise, and cost-effective ageing of both fishery-dependent and fishery-independent samples, including the age composition of regulatory discards currently unknown under existing protocols. This addresses a critical bottleneck in the stock assessment process under the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act, which requires annual catch limits grounded in peer-reviewed scientific advice from Regional Fishery Management Council Scientific and Statistical Committees. Epigenetic clocks will allow high-volume, up-to-date age composition data to feed more timely assessment models supporting improved fisheries management in the Gulf.

The period of performance runs through September 30, 2030. Work is performed in Corpus Christi, Texas. The University of Florida Division of Sponsored Research received a sub-award (NA25NOSX451C0205-M2600585, obligated November 14, 2025) to develop regional capacity for fin clip tissue collection and archiving and to conduct simulation analysis demonstrating the utility of epigenetic ageing data in stock assessment models.

The area of focus for the proposed project is fish, fisheries and fishing communities, and the projects overarching goal is operationalizing data collection and the use of genomic techniques for time series analysis of gulf of america (gulf) fishes via stock assessment. The magnuson stevens fishery conservation and management act requires each regional fishery management council to base annual catch limits on peer-reviewed scientific advice provided by its scientific and statistical committee. In the gulf, the process of producing peer-reviewed estimates of stock status depends heavily on age composition data that are used to estimate and predict variability in important processes (i.e., growth, recruitment, mortality) that estimate stock status, via assessment models, which constitute the ultimate fisheries time series analysis. However, producing age composition data via ageing otoliths or other structures (e.g., spines, vertebrae) on average takes nearly 2.5 years after structures are collected, greatly hampering the timeliness of assessments. Furthermore, the age composition of regulatory discards is unknown under the current system, and age estimates of the landed catch for a given species can suffer from bias or imprecision. The result of this data limitation is many parameters are treated as static or fixed within assessment models, even though they are dynamic or uncertain. Epigenetic ageing using FIN clips will considerably improve the efficiency of the assessment process in that many more fishery-dependent and -independent samples could be aged in a timely manner, with greater accuracy and precision and at lower expense than current ageing protocols. This would allow for a high volume of up-to-date age composition data to be included in more timely stock assessment models. Therefore, this project will develop cuttingedge epigenetic ageing methods for 14 managed gulf fishes. Epigenetic clocks developed to date clearly demonstrate the power and utility of this approach. A second component of the study will be developing a collaborative framework among state and federal collaborators, as well as fishery stakeholders, to collect and archive FIN clip samples needed for this and other genomic approaches. Lastly, analyses will be conducted to demonstrate the improvement in stock assessment time series analysis with epigenetic-derived age data for three marquee species (red snapper, gray triggerfish, and GAG). The genomics and analytical tools developed in this study, as well as the framework for data collection, will be transformative for the assessment process, enhancing the timeliness and certainty in catch advice coming from next-generation assessments, which will lead to more efficient and sustainable gulf fisheries.