Length distributions are
available for selected species by inch group.
These lengths are FORK lengths.
Inches groups contain fish that were from X to X.99 inches long. For example, inch group 9 means fish that are between 9 and 9.99 inches.
Length distributions are available for the 5 most recent complete years on the Atlantic and Gulf coast.
Length distributions are based on cells (state/wave/fishing mode/fishing area/species) where at least 5 individual fish measurements were taken.
Cells with 5 or less measurements are ignored (i.e. no substitute lengths are used as is done in some analyses.
This was done so that distributions are not skewed by unrepresentative fishing modes, areas, or waves.
The raw length distributions are weighted by the estimated number of fish harvested (CATCH TYPE A + B1) in each cell so that the distributions are correctly summarized across time periods and geographic areas.
