Commercial landings data for the first three months of the fishing season from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration was somewhat confused, leading to the widespread, incorrect conclusion that landings in Portland, Maine, were booming while landings in Gloucester were falling.
The opposite was the case, NOAA reported after a day's analysis of the landings data, which was released last week and widely disseminated by the Associated Press.
Landings in Portland, according to figures provided the Times by the Portland Fish Exchange, were 388 metric tons in the period, down 17 percent from 2009.
The flawed NOAA chart showed Portland up 66.4 percent, but that was because the landings of each boat were associated with the "principal port of the vessel," rather than where the catch was actually landed.
Read the complete story from The Gloucester Times.