CatchPerUnitEffort: Catch Per Unit Effort (CPUE)

In nmfs-fish-tools/data_dictionary: Collaborative tool to improve consistency in terminology and develop a framework of tools for fisheries science.

Catch Per Unit Effort (CPUE)

Description

The quantity of fish caught (in number or in weight) with one standard unit of fishing effort; e.g. number of fish taken per 1,000 hooks per day or weight of fish, in tons, taken per hour of trawling. CPUE is often considered an index of fish biomass (or abundance). Sometimes referred to as catch rate. CPUE may be used as a measure of economic efficiency of fishing as well as an index of fish abundance.

Usage

CatchPerUnitEffort

Format

Examples

fishery-independent CPUE

Rationale

Many models use the term index for a survey and CPUE for fishery-dependent data but they are typically entered into an input file in the same way and the naming should be standardized to a single overarching term. The overarching term would facilitate the inclusion of environmental data thought to index at least a portion of the population dynamics as well as fishery data. Environmental data does not necessarily have a catch or unit of effort associated with it, and thus, the term CPUE does not apply. Often CPUE data are thought to be a relative index of abundance and would never be considered absolute such as can be the case for an acoustic survey that does not kill the population but rather creates a metric of its abundance potentially over the entire area in which it is thought to inhabit. Where, an absolute index of abundance would be assumed to have a catchability of one.

Alternatives

catch rate, index of abundance, standardized fishery catch time series, catch per effort, fishing success, availability.

Range of possible values

0–Inf

Units

nmfs-fish-tools/data_dictionary documentation built on July 27, 2024, 12:20 p.m.