About the NOAA Fisheries Toolbox

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General Information

• The NOAA Fisheries Toolbox is a collection of software programs which can be used in fishery stock assessments.

• Many of the models are used in peer-reviewed stock assessments in the U.S. and globally.

• Each program is a stand-alone Windows desktop application and combines a sophisticated graphical interface with an independent calculation engine. 

Having the calculation engine separate from the user interface is useful in a number of ways. Model development is enhanced by allowing the developer to use whatever tools or programming languages best fit the problem. In addition, graphic interfaces can be designed to have a consistent look and feel across the spectrum of Toolbox programs while at the same time allowing enough flexibility to handle data manipulation and display in the most efficient manner. For further details and more in-depth technical information, go to our page describing the Toolbox Design. 

Graphic Interface Features

• You can enter and edit data, run the model, view and copy output data and plots all within the same graphical data management environment. This interface eliminates the need to hand-edit ASCII text files.

• Large amounts of tabular data can be entered by copying from spreadsheets and pasting into data grids in the graphic interface. 

• Plots of model results are generated automatically. Plots can be saved to your computer one at a time or entire groups of plots can be exported as bitmap files in batch mode. 

• Data from model results can quickly be copied from the graphic interface and pasted into other applications such as spreadsheets for further analysis. Some models can export model results in a format that can be read into the R software environment without the need for further conversion.

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The NOAA Fisheries Toolbox is directed by NOAA Fisheries' Office of Science and Technology. A committee, chaired by Dr. Richard Methot and consisting of representatives from each Sciences Center, provides oversight. The Toolbox's principal programmers are located at the Northeast Fisheries Science Center. 

For related information please see the Office of Science and Technology's description of NOAA Fisheries’ Stock Assessment Program.

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