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I used to evaluate radar performance for the USAF for about 15 years. We did a lot of data collection and analysis and some of the very accurate performance predictions we made were based on a sample size of 3. There is a confidence interval (the CI, also called margin of error) associated with the F&G data that isn't shown in that report. The CI is probably less than 10. There is also a confidence level (CL - also not shown) that tells them how sure they can be that the data is representative of the total population. It is expressed as a percentage and represents how often the true percentage of the population lies within the confidence interval. Most researchers use the 95% confidence level which means you can be 95% certain that the number of perch in a size group will be accurate to within a plus or minus the CI of the number. The wider the CI you are willing to accept, the more certain you can be that the whole population answers would be within that range. I'd be very surprised to learn that they did not follow standard procedures for statistical analysis to determine the estimates given in that report.