Statistical Terms Glossary

A sudden, large-scale fish mortality caused by factors such as oxygen deficit, inflow of toxicant, etc.

It is usually a clear brown/yellow liquid obtained through the pressing of the cooked fish.

A fish price index is used to better illustrate both relative and absolute price movements.

Professional fishermen have usually the greatest experience in catching fish and, as mentioned above, the techniques most often employed for fish sampling are the same as those used in commercial fisheries.

The living resources in the community or population. Use of the term fish stock usually implies that the particular population is more or less isolated from other stocks of the same species and hence self-sustaining. In a particular fishery, the fish stock may be one or several species of fish. In environmental accounting the fish stock of a country includes all stocks which occur within the country’s EEZ and the part of the shared fish stock allocated to the country on the basis of international agreements.

The process of collecting and analyzing biological and statistical information to determine the changes in the abundance of fishery stocks in response to fishing, and, to the extent possible, to predict future trends of stock abundance. Stock assessments are based on resource surveys; knowledge of the habitat requirements, life history, and behaviour of the species; the use of environmental indices to determine impacts on stocks; and catch statistics. Stock assessments are used as a basis to assess and specify the present and probable future condition of a fishery.

The living resources in the community or population from which catches are taken in a fishery. Use of the term fish stock usually implies that the particular population is more or less isolated reproductively from other stocks of the same species and hence self-sustaining. In a particular fishery, the fish stock may be one or several species of fish but here is also intended to include commercial invertebrates and plants.

The practice of placing aquatic organisms into natural or modified water bodies.

A system able to follow the movement of fish and fishery products through specified stages of capture, processing and distribution.

Stocks less abundant than the level needed to produce MSY.

Stocks with abundance at or above the level associated with maximum sustainable yield (MSY).