Marine - Species - King Mackerel

Recreational Fishery in SC

The recreational catch, while variable year to year, has been on a declining trend since the mid 1980's. The relatively low recent 10 year average (compared to the entire time series) reflects the low total catch in the last ten years. The most recent 10 year average total catch (2002-2012) was one third the average catch for the entire time series.

Commercial landings for king mackerel reflect a similar trend to the recreational landings with peak landings occurring in the 1980's and early 1990's. There has been a steady decline in commercial landings since 1990 with the latest 10 year average (2002-2012) landings at 23,400 lbs versus 115,873 lbs for the previous ten years (1991-2001).

The recreational catch data is provided by the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), which conducts phone and angler-intercept surveys to monitor angler activities and catches. For more information see: https://www.st.nmfs.noaa.gov/.

The commercial fisheries data is provided by the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), which compiles commercial information provided by state agencies. For more information, see: https://www.st.nmfs.noaa.gov/.

Additional Graph Information

Commercial and recreational catches are measured in number of individuals or pounds of fish caught. Changes in catch among years may be the result of changes in abundance, fishing effort, or a combination of the two.

On each graph, the horizontal dotted lines above or below the "10 year average" represent one "standard deviation" unit, which is a measure of how variable the annual data are around the 10-year average. In general, the area between one standard deviation above the mean and one standard deviation below the mean includes approximately 68% of all values. Approximately 95% of observations in the data set are found within two standard deviation units of the average and is referred to as the prediction interval.