Unfished: Unfished

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

Unfished

Description

Levels of the stock, parameters, or derived quantities prior to the advent of industrialized fishing, i.e., can include native exploitation.

Usage

Unfished

Format

Examples

unfished spawning biomass

Rationale

Across the U.S. assessment documents that were analyzed, there is a fairly equal split between the term unfished and equilibrium with lower usage of virgin. The equal split of unfished and equilibrium could be, in part, because it is common for the terms to appear together, i.e., unfished equilibrium. The term initial was not included in the search because it occurred in the documents in contexts not related to the time period before industrialized fishing. For example, text surrounding the topic of initial parameter values is common in stock assessment documents. Equilibrium conditions can occur at any point in time throughout the time series as long as the stock is experiencing equal mortality and growth, and thus, the point in time when equilibrium conditions are thought to exist because fishing at an industrial-wide scale had yet to alter the stock should be referred to as unfished rather than equilibrium.

Alternatives

virgin, initial, equilibrium, unfished equilibrium

Range of possible values

0–Inf

Units

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