Introduction to stock assessment
Unit 2.2: Data collection
For high-quality stock assessments to be produced, data must be accurate and timely. However, data collection can be challenging because:
- most fish cannot be directly observed underwater
- many species migrate to varying extents
- it takes time for population-level changes to be accurately reflected in the data for long-lived species
Stock assessments can require large amounts of data, collected over multiple years. The amount of data collected for a stock depends on various factors, such as area accessibility or the existence of collection methodology. Species can be widely distributed and require significant sampling effort to collect data across their range.
Sometimes, only a limited amount of data can be collected for a stock. Data-limited stock assessments can be conducted but may rely on alternative methods like making more assumptions using information about closely-related species. Uncertainty may also be addressed with expert judgement.
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