a. The biological classification

The biological or taxonomic classification is the group that the specie belongs to, i.e. the family, class, order, genus, etc.

b. Their habitat and distribution

The habitat is the type of ecosystem and environmental factors that make it optimal for a specie to thrive. The distribution gives information on the location of the specie and its stocks. Fish stocks are fish schools, groups and populations.

c. Fishing information

Fishing information includes the quantity of landed fish by fisheries, their total commercial value, their total weight value etc.

a. Straddling stocks

Straddling stocks are fish schools, groups and populations found in the EEZ or Exclusive Economic Zone and the High Seas. By being partially present in the High Seas, no single country can have jurisdiction and claim on these fish populations. They can be caught by fishers of all nations and should be researched further by international agencies. They cannot be included in the data used for national sustainability calculations of a single country.

b. National stocks

National stocks are fish schools, groups and populations found in the EEZ or the Exclusive Economic Zone and the Territorial Waters of one country. These stocks are under the jurisdiction of a single country. These are the stocks that should be included when making the reference list for the country where the sustainability research is being performed.

c. Shared stocks

Shared stocks are fish schools, groups and populations found in the EEZ or the Exclusive Economic Zone and the Territorial Waters of two or more adjacent countries. Shared stocks may be used in the sustainability research as long as the countries that exploit these stocks are clearly stated, the indicator values are similar between the countries, and as long as ample references to other regional assessments are added to the reference list.

A ranking based on the mean annual landings by commercial fisheries in weight and value is made per species on the list for the country of interest. This will help with step 6.

The species from the list are prioritized based on the gathered information from previous steps. There are usually too many species present in the marine ecosystems, and because research is costly and time consuming, not all species can have their own specific research project. A priority must thus be made to pick the most important and urgent species for management, sustainability efforts, fishery income and local fishery dependent economy.

A reference list is a list that includes stocks of major importance for the local ecosystem and has social and cultural consequences. The social and cultural importance and consideration should be based on regional expert opinion and available scientific information for the species.

A reference list contains a large number of species. These need to first be split up over either different research teams or time. Only a few species can be examined at a time.

Information about the abundance, biology and catch amounts are needed in order to proceed with modelling. In this step information about biological life history parameters needs to be collected and summarized for the target specie. These life history parameters include: maximum caught length, age range, spawning season, natural mortality, growth weight relation, etc. The summary of the life history parameters serve as a state of the art for the target specie. This was the step I worked on for the thornback ray, as part of my Professional Practice.

The information needs to be validated as part of the quality control. Validation includes checking the methods that were used by the scientist that originally published the information. For example, for some species certain life history parameters are not universally agreed upon. Therefore it is needed to check that all information originated from the same sampling or estimation methods.

In order to continue to the mathematical modelling, enough information and values, that do not contradict themselves, nor have data gaps for certain parameters, should be available.

A stock assessment helps fishery management groups, such as policy makers, to make decisions on fishery regulations, in response to changing fish stocks or in to help with resource protection and sustainability. Stock assessment is given in the form of data or/and the mathematical and statistical assessment models.

The type of stock assessment needed depends on the species, the questions asked, the available data, etc.

Assessment models are almost always based on population dynamics models. These estimate how much fish are present and available for fishing. They also can give the optimal count of fish to catch in order to keep the population healthy. Stock assessment will give information to questions like “what will happen if I increase the amount I catch?” or “what would happen to the fish stock if the catch of fishers increases by 20%?”

Reporting on the stock status of the target specie can be done through writing a scientific journal paper or by writing questionnaire (as the country of interest) for the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).