Figure 10. Principal fishing grounds in the Gulf of Mexico
 Reef Fish Fishery



Given that all other technical parameters are constrained to be constant

across states, the A. may serve to indicate the relative size or densi-
 1
ties of the primary stocks fished by vessels for each state.

Furthermore, testing the difference between the A. constitutes an

approximate test for the degree to which various states' vessels fish

common grounds. The reasoning behind this is that if vessels from dif-

ferent states fish common grounds, the stock densities should eventually

become equal. This can be investigated by testing the hypothesis A. =
 1
A. for all i, j.
J