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NOAA FISHERIES: Office of Science and Technology
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MRFSS Fish Fork Length Distribution Query

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.

Please Make Selections for Length Distribution Query:

YEAR RANGE

(Earliest Year)

(Latest Year)

WAVE(S)
Waves are two-month sampling periods.

GEOGRAPHICAL AREA


  • Areas are arranged in geographical order by subregion.
  • For example, the option "North Atlantic by State" will give you catch for the five states listed after that option (Maine through Massachusetts) on a state-by state basis.
  • The "North Atlantic" option will give you the catch summed across the five states.
  • Florida is divided into two regions (east and west) in our survey, as is California (southern and northern).
  • MRFSS sampling began in Puerto Rico in 2000 (Caribbean subregion).

SPECIES:

INLAND means inshore saltwater and brackish water bodies such as bays, estuaries, sounds, etc. It does not include inland freshwater areas. STATE TERRITORIAL SEA is a zone extending three nautical miles from shore for all states except for Puerto Rico and the Gulf coast of Florida where the seaward boundary is 3 marine leagues (approximately 10 statute miles). The state territorial seas do not include inland areas. STATE WATERS is the combination of inland and state territorial seas. The FEDERAL EXCLUSIVE ECONOMIC ZONE is contiguous to the State Territorial Seas of all the United States and its possessions and extends seaward 200 nautical miles measured from the baseline from which the Territorial Sea is measured. OCEAN is a combination of the State Territorial Sea and the Federal Exclusive Economic Zone.

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