Abstract
This study makes use of data that contain personally identifiable information (PII), which is confidential by law and is suppressed within this analysis, when appropriate. When aggregated landings are examined , the magnitude of the Atlantic fishery is such that PII is rarely a concern. However, as smaller subgroups are identified, disclosure of PII becomes of greater concern. The “rule of three” is used here —if any subgroup aggregation consists of three or fewer individuals, landings data and exposure are not disclosed in detail, and this information is marked as not disclosable. Whenever possible, if suppressed data exceed a threshold for inclusion in this analysis, the subgroup is noted as such, but specific details including the extent of expo sure are suppressed.
Geospatial mapping and analysis was performed in ESRI ArcGIS 10.1 and 10.2.