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2010 FL-GA red snapper longline CRP project
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These data are from a cooperative effort between scientists and commercial fishers
to assess whether a cryptic biomass of relatively old and large red snapper occurred
in continental shelf-break and deeper waters off the Atlantic coast of Florida and
Georgia. Contracted commercial fishers used industry-standard longline gear to survey
red snapper across three depth strata and eight latitudinal bands off Florida and
Georgia. There was considerable variation in age and size distributions of caught
red snapper (age range 3 to 15 years size range 46 to 93 cm fork length), and in
catch-per-unit-effort. However, the cryptic biomass hypothesis was not supported
by the data, as there was no evidence of greater ages, sizes, or catch of red snapper
in shelf-break or deeper waters relative to shallower, continental shelf waters.
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