Michael H. Prager -- NOAA Home Page

Michael H. Prager, Ph.D.
Senior Scientist
Southeast Fisheries Science Center
NOAA CCFHR
101 Pivers Island Road
Beaufort, North Carolina USA

Welcome to the Web page of M. H. Prager, senior scientist in the National Marine Fisheries Service, Southeast Fisheries Science Center. This page contains information about my scientific work, links to key documents, and downloadable software for fisheries work.

General information
Publication list List of selected publications, many written with colleagues		Species of particular interest Striped bass, blue crab, menhaden, reef fishes Chub (Pacific) mackerel; Pacific salmonids Bluefin tuna, yellowfin tuna, dolphinfish, swordfish, and billfish
Magnuson-Stevens Act and NEPA materials Useful laws, reports, and excerpts from the Code of Federal Regulations		Research interests Population ecology of exploited fish and shellfish Relationship of environment to recruitment Fish stock assessment methods Statistical modeling of resource populations

General information

Publication list

List of selected publications, many written with colleagues

Species of particular interest

Striped bass, blue crab, menhaden, reef fishes
Chub (Pacific) mackerel; Pacific salmonids
Bluefin tuna, yellowfin tuna, dolphinfish, swordfish, and billfish

Magnuson-Stevens Act and NEPA materials

Useful laws, reports, and excerpts from the Code of Federal Regulations

Research interests

Population ecology of exploited fish and shellfish
Relationship of environment to recruitment
Fish stock assessment methods
Statistical modeling of resource populations

Fishery science software
Software is offered free of charge for research use. There is NO WARRANTY, either from the author or from the U.S. Government. If you use the software, you do so at your own risk.
Surplus-production modeling (ASPIC)	ASPIC is used to fit a fishery surplus-production model to data on abundance (e.g., CPUE) and removals (catches). It implements methods described in Prager (1994). [ASPIC page]
Targets and limits (REPAST)	REPAST is a method, due to Prager et al. (2003), for calculating a target reference point when a corresponding limit reference point is known. A Windows program for this calculation is included in the ASPIC 5.0 Suite, found on my [ASPIC page]. To obtain REPAST source code in Fortran 95, contact me.
Interfacing R and compiled languages	Collegues and I have developed a software interface between compiled languages (C/C++, ADMB, Fortran) and the open-source statistic language R. The interface allows complex data structures to be transferred to R for automated processing. For more, see [this page.]
Nonlinear parameter estimation (FISHPARM)	FISHPARM was written in 1984 for nonlinear parameter estimation of common fisheries models. It is described in BASIC Fishery Biology Programs by Saila, Recksiek, and Prager, © 1988 Elsevier. The version here does not require interpreted BASIC. FISHPARM has not been updated in over 10 years and is only minimally supported by me, but you may [download FISHPARM with manual here.]