2010 FL-GA red snapper longline CRP project

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.