Bridge - Catch & Release Fisheries Graphing Exercise

Catch & Release Fisheries Graphing Exercise
Step by Step Instructions

Striped Bass Graph

Note: These instructions are designed for use with the spreadsheet software package Microsoft Excel on a PC.

Objective: To graph recreational catch & release fishing vs. catch & harvest fishing of striped bass (or other fish species) over time.

Procedure:

Downloading Data

Follow the directions from the Bridge's Catch & Release Data Tip for querying data from the Marine Recreational Fisheries Statistics Survey. Be sure to select Output Form: DOWNLOAD ASCII FILE - PC.

FOR NETSCAPE USERS

A Save As window will appear. Type the file name you wish to save it as (for example striped bass released.txt or striped bass harvested.txt), be sure to end with the extension .txt. If you have choices in File Type, make sure Text is selected. Also, be sure to note under which directory you save the file. Hit Save.

FOR MICROSOFT INTERNET EXPLORER USERS

Go to File, Save As. Type the file name you wish to save it as (for example striped bass released.txt or striped bass harvested.txt), be sure to end with the extension .txt. If you have choices in File Type, make sure Text is selected. Also, be sure to note under which directory you save the file. Hit Save.

Importing Data into Excel

Open Microsoft Excel. Open the file you just saved with the released data (be sure you have selected Text in the File Type). You will get the Text Import Wizard.

Step 1 - Select Delimited, Start Import at Row: 1, and File Origin: Windows (ANSI). Hit Next.
Step 2 - Select Delimiters: Comma and Text Qualifier: ". Hit Next.
Step 3 - Select Column Data Format: General. Hit Finish.
If you see "#######" in a cell(s) instead of numbers, do not panic. This just means the columns are not wide enough to display the entire number so you need to make the columns wider by clicking and dragging the line between the letters at the top of the column. Keep this file open.

Go to File, Open and repeat for the harvested data.

From the harvested data, select and copy the harvest data column (B12 to B28). Go back to the released data file (go to Window and select the released data), click on cell C12 and paste the harvested data here, pasting these numbers over the standard error numbers.

Graphing the Data

Go to an empty cell, G1 for instance, and click on the

(chart wizard) icon.

Step 1 - Under Standard Types select Chart Type: XY (Scatter). Under Chart Sub-type select the first chart in the second row (two lines with dots). Hit Next.
Step 2 - Under Data Range tab, click on the (collapse dialog) icon. Highlight the three columns of data starting with "Year" cell (Column A, Row 12) and ending with the last harvest cell (Column C, Row 28). Click on the (open dialog) icon. Make sure the Series In: Columns is selected. Hit Next.
Step 3 - Chart Options. Enter the titles, legend, etc. that you wish. Hit Next.
Step 4 - Select Place Chart As New Sheet: Chart 1. Hit Finish.

To save your spreadsheet and plots, go to File, Save As. Select File Type Microsoft Excel Workbook (*.xls). Compare your Excel graphs to the Bridge's, for striped bass and bluefish.

You have just graphed the 1988-2001 striped bass recreational catch & release vs. harvested fishing for the Mid-Atlantic! At this point, you can refer back to the Bridge data tip for discussion questions and ideas, and for more links on related subjects. This graphing exercise can be repeated for any species, dates, or locations.

Back to Catch & Release Data Tip
Go to Data Tip Archive
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