Inland fish stock assessment: Applying data-poor methods from marine systems

Abstract

Inland fisheries can be diverse, local and highly seasonal. This complexity creates challenges for monitoring, and consequently, many inland fish stocks have few data and cannot be assessed using methods typically applied to industrial marine fisheries. In such situations, there may be a role for methods recently developed for assessment of data-poor fish stocks. Herein, three established data-poor assessment tools from marine systems are demonstrated to highlight their value to inland fisheries management. A case study application uses archived length, catch and catch-per-unit-effort data to characterise the ecological status of an important recreational brown trout stock in an Irish lake. This case study is of specific use to management of freshwater sport fisheries, but the broader purpose of the paper was to provide a crossover between marine and inland fisheries science, and to highlight accessible data-poor assessment approaches that may be applicable in diverse inland systems.