America’s seaboard is full of diverse marine ecosystems, with each state’s composition of fish caught telling an ecological story. We can explore that story in SI Yacht’s new graphic which shows how many fish per person are caught in coastal states and the distribution among fish species.
We can see that Florida’s warm waters create rich marine diversity with herrings comprising 12.6% of fishing catches, but plenty of other species are fished, including grouper and seatrout.
Atlantic mackerel abounds in the cold waters of the northern states. An astounding 61.1% of Maine catches are mackerel. Virginia anglers reel in the spotted fish, which makes up 30.2% of fishing hauls. This small species thrives in the Chesapeake Bay environment.
Scup is a regional favorite in many places, claiming the number one catch spot in Rhode Island, Connecticut, and New York. Maryland’s white perch and South Carolina’s Atlantic croaker prove that each state has its own unique species composition in the waters.
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