Last modified: 05 Oct 2023 08:46
The course introduces students to the essential elements of fisheries science. It consists of three main sections: fishing technology and behaviour, fishery independent methods, and stock assessment techniques. Ultimately it will equip students with the basic knowledge and skills required to assess the abundance and distribution of fish and to understand key elements of the provision of advice for fisheries management.
| Study Type | Postgraduate | Level | 5 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Term | Second Term | Credit Points | 15 credits (7.5 ECTS credits) |
| Campus | Aberdeen | Sustained Study | No |
| Co-ordinators |
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The course includes a significant contribution from Marine Scotland Science staff. Consequently, the timetable changes year to year to accommodate Marine Scotland staff availability. The course consists of three sections, which are not necessarily given in the order below.
The first section reviews the various types of fishing methods, as well as measurement and observation in fishing gear experiments. Various behavioural concepts are covered, including swimming and fish sensory systems. The concept of selectivity is described in theoretical detail, followed by a description of the various methods of improving selectivity of fishing gear and a review of ‘unaccounted mortality’.
The second section covers fishery independent (survey) methods, with lectures on each of the main types of survey: acoustic, trawl, larvae, egg and TV surveys. Survey design concepts relating to all types of survey are introduced in a lecture and illustrated through a practical as applied to acoustic surveys. Lectures are also given covering survey statistics common to all methods.
The final section covers stock assessment, introducing students to ideas about analysing fisheries data and applying both classic and modern fisheries science models. This part of the course is based on a series of computer-based practicals which deal with three main concepts: cohort analysis using fisheries data, separable analysis using survey data, and length-based stock assessment.
Extensive use will be made of both Excel spreadsheets and (for the first two concepts) the R programming language.
By the end of the course students should be able to:
Taught topics covered include:
(note that these may vary slightly between years)
Trawl survey
Mackerel and Horse Mackerel egg survey
Nephrop TV survey
Fish behaviour
Applied fish behaviour
Fishing methods
Technical conservation measures
Inshore fisheries
Wrasse fisheries
Remote electronic monitoring
Fish market sampling
Physics of sound
Acoustics instruments
Acoustic surveys
Survey design and analysis
Cohort analysis (stock assessment)
Separable analysis (stock assessment)
Length-based stock assessment
Information on contact teaching time is available from the course guide.
| Assessment Type | Summative | Weighting | 50 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Assessment Weeks | Feedback Weeks | |||
| Feedback |
formative feedback during practical, individualised written feedback on submission |
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| Knowledge Level | Thinking Skill | Outcome |
|---|---|---|
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| Assessment Type | Summative | Weighting | 50 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Assessment Weeks | Feedback Weeks | |||
| Feedback |
individual written feedback on submission |
|||
| Knowledge Level | Thinking Skill | Outcome |
|---|---|---|
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There are no assessments for this course.
| Knowledge Level | Thinking Skill | Outcome |
|---|---|---|
| Procedural | Apply | write appropriate computer code and utilise R functions in relation to fisheries analysis and stock assessment |
| Conceptual | Evaluate | to distinguish between survey types, employ fishery survey statistics, explain basics of fisheries acoustics and apply principles and methods of stock assessment and fisheries analysis |
| Procedural | Create | design and analyse an acoustic survery |
| Factual | Understand | to distinguish between types of fishing gear, describe fish capture processes and differentiate between responses of different fish to different gear |
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