Fish Assemblages in California from Recreational Fishing Trips, 1999-2001

680 recreational fishing trips from 1999 and 2001 provide GPS coordinates and catch data from central and southern California waters. The Recreational Fisheries Information Network (RecFIN) supplied data on four hook-and-line fishing methods, later filtered to 18 fish species across 2,967 trip-location combinations. Site groups were calculated using the Bray-Curtis dissimilarity coefficient.

Use Cases

• Analyze spatial patterns of fish assemblages based on GPS coordinates and depth ranges.
• Model species diversity and community composition from hook-and-line catch data.
• Compare fish communities across different recreational fishing methods (free drift, stationary drift, anchor).

Strengths

• Contains 2,967 unique sample units (trip/location combinations).
• Includes GPS coordinates for 680 fishing trips across a depth range of 0 to 2,200 meters.
• Focuses on 18 fish species after filtering for ecological relevance.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Data may reflect temporal bias inherent to the 1999-2001 collection period.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.

Provenance

Source

Recreational Fisheries Information Network (RecFIN), provided via NOAA_NCEI.

Collection Method

Data collected from GPS-tracked recreational fishing trips using hook-and-line methods.

Time Range

1999, 2001

Geography

Central and southern California coast.