Ranges from Massachusetts to Texas. Commercially important stocks occur off the southeast coast of the U.S. (North Carolina to Georgia), Florida west coast, and lower Florida Keys(Ref. 5222). Percentage of males in the population off North and South Carolina appears to have decreased significantly, from 7-23% in the 1970s and 1980s to 1% in the 1990s and mean length of fish landed in the longline fishery has steadily decreased from 65-80 cm in the early 1980s to 50-60 cm in the mid-1990s (Ref. 45886). Also Ref. 276, 26340, 26938, 89707.