Research Document 2020/015

The dependability of fishery monitoring programs: Harmonising the quality of estimates with the risks to the conservation of aquatic populations

By Benoît, H.P., and Allard, J.

Abstract

Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) is finalizing a national fishery monitoring policy to ensure that it has dependable, timely and accessible information for fisheries to manage them sustainably and to minimize harm to non-harvested incidentally captured taxa and to habitats. The policy seeks to implement an objective and consistent approach for setting the type and degree of monitoring employed across fisheries managed nationwide by DFO under the Fisheries Act. Implementation of the policy will involve evaluating the degree to which data on removals in individual Canadian fisheries are appropriate for determining whether fishery removals are sustainable for target and incidentally captured stocks / populations. An important consideration for policy implementation is the quality of estimates and decisions on compliance to limits produced using data from fishery monitoring programs. Quality describes the ability of an estimation process to produce a valid estimation or to reach a correct decision on compliance to a limit (e.g. evaluation of whether the quota has been respected). The quality of an estimate depends on the variability and bias of an estimation resulting from the randomness inherent in the data collection process and from the implementation of the sampling protocol. Under the policy, required or desired levels of quality should be commensurate to the degree of risk posed by fisheries to the conservation of aquatic populations. The present research document builds on previous DFO scientific advice as well as a draft policy implementation tool used to screen risks to conservation, and addresses three main objectives. First, we review and revise descriptors used to classify risk to target catch and bycatch species through the prosecution of Canadian fisheries. Second, we review and slightly revise approaches to quantifying estimation quality and propose an approach to harmonise the quality of estimates with the risks to the conservation of aquatic populations. Third, we outline options for modifying catch monitoring programs and/or fishery management measures to ensure that realised estimation quality levels are commensurate with conservation risk. This document supports the conclusions and advice from a DFO National Science Advisory meeting of May 14-16, 2019 for science advice on a catch monitoring risk assessment tool for a national policy on fishery monitoring.

Research Document 2020/015 (PDF, 859 KB)

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