Report of the Workshop on Using Fishers to Sample Catches (WKUFS)

To assess a fishery it is necessary to determine the biological characteristics, such as the age and length distributions, of the commercial catch. In addition, estimates of the amount of discards will lead to more accurate assessments.

Using scientists to collect information on commercial catches is usually not cost effective. Several institutions are now employing selected fishers (often called a ‘reference fleet’, ‘study fleet’ or ‘sampling fleet’) to measure a subsample of their catches, extract otoliths, record the amount of discards, etc. This may be a cost efficient way to collect such data but care is needed to assure that these data are as useful as possible.