Stock Assessment
Stock assessments provide fisheries managers with the information that is used in the regulation of a fish stock. Biological and fisheries data are collected in a stock assessment.
A wide array of biological data may be collected for an assessment. These include details on the age structure of the stock, age at first spawning, fecundity, ratio of males to females in the stock, natural mortality (M), fishing mortality (F), growth rate of the fish, spawning behavior, critical habitats, migratory habits, food preferences, and an estimate of either the total population or total biomass of the stock.
The following data regarding fisheries activities is collected: the kinds of fisherman in the fishery, commercial versus recreational, and the gear that is used (longline, rod and reel, nets, etc.), pounds of fish caught by each type of fisherman, the fishing effort each kind of fisherman expends, the age structure of the fish harvested by each group of fisherman, the ratio of males to females that are captured, how the fish are marketed, the value of the fish to the different fisherman groups, and the time and geographic location of the best catches. Also in the assessment, geographical boundaries of different stocks or populations are defined. From the combined biological and fisheries data, the current status and condition of the stock is defined and managers use this assessment to predict how in the future, stocks will respond to varying levels of fishing pressure. Ultimately managers want to reduce the levels of overfishing that occurs and restore stocks that have been overfished.
Read more about Stock Assessment: Defining Stock, Gathering Data, Overfished Versus Overfishing, Biological Reference Points, Catch Curve, Assessment Models, After A Stock Assessment
Famous quotes containing the words stock and/or assessment:
“However low and poor the taking Snuff argues a Man to be in his own Stock of Thought, or Means to employ his Brains and his Fingers, yet there is a poorer Creature in the World than He, and this is a Borrower of Snuff; a Fellow that keeps no Box of his own, but is always asking others for a Pinch.”
—Richard Steele (1672–1729)
“The first year was critical to my assessment of myself as a person. It forced me to realize that, like being married, having children is not an end in itself. You don’t at last arrive at being a parent and suddenly feel satisfied and joyful. It is a constantly reopening adventure.”
—Anonymous Mother. From the Boston Women’s Health Book Collection. Quoted in The Joys of Having a Child, by Bill and Gloria Adler (1993)