Fish Population Dynamic and Stock Assessment

1.5.2. Fishery-independent data

(ii) Fishery-independent data

Fishery-independent data is obtained in the absence of any fishing activity. The majority of this data is collected by state and federal agencies. A wide variety of methods and gear types are used to acquire fishery-independent data. Sampling equipment can include trawls, seines, acoustic and/or video surveys. The study may focus on a single species, multiple species, or a specific age range or cohort. Regardless of the method or approach, these surveys provide managers with an estimate of abundance. Mark and recapture studies are commonly used to estimate movement, migration, growth rate, natural mortality, and discard mortality. Stock assessments are often completed using both fishery-dependent and fishery-independent data.

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.