A fish nursery has four tanks for holding fish before they are sold. Twelve fish weighing less than 1 pound are placed in tank A. Twenty-five fish weighing at least 1 pound but no more than 2 pounds are placed in tank B. Nine fish weighting at least 2 pounds but no more than 3 pounds are placed in tank C. Seven fish weighing more than 3 pounds are placed in tank D. Which of the following could be the median of the weight, in pounds, of these 53 fish?

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We can organize the data into a simple table:

$$ \begin{array}{|c|c|} \hline \text{Weight} & \text{\# of fish} \\ \hline \lt 1 \text{ pound} & 12 \\ \hline \gt 1 \text{ and }\lt 2 \text{ pound} & 25 \\ \hline \gt 2 \text{ and }\lt 3 \text{ pound} & 9 \\ \hline \gt 3 \text{ pound} & 7 \\ \hline \end{array} $$

Since there are 53 fish in total, the median refers to the 27^th fish. This fish must belong in the \( \gt 1 \text{ and } \lt 2 \text{ pound}\) category.