Along the Swedish coast.

Fish taxonomy-related counts

The surveillance sector is responsible for the laboratory's long term work with data collection on fish stocks and water environment along the Swedish coast. Data about the stocks magnitude and changes in time are collected through test fishing and biological sampling of prioritized species, often in near cooperation with professional fishermen. Collected data is the base for prognoses and the composition of stock models within the laboratory's resource sector. The long term work with test fishing in the reference areas also give a valuable contribution to the monitoring of our coastal environments. Three of the reference areas are part of the National Programme for Environmental Monitoring. Fishing with standardized methods is used for long term monitoring of the fish stock magnitude, species' richness and size structure. The coastal fishery in the Baltic Proper can be divided into two groups: Stationary warm water species as perch, white bream, ruffe & roach and cold water species which live deeper down and are less stationary, flounder, cod, bullhead, eelpout and lavaret. Fishing for warm water species is eg. in shallow water during the summer, and for cold water species is done in deeper water when the autumn temperature at the bottom has sunk below 12 degrees C. On the west coast the coastal fishery is monitored through test fishery with hoop nets/fish traps. The fishery is normally performed in shallow water during spring, summer and autumn. For selected species, data are collected for age analyses, growth and year class strength. For further information see 'Metoder for overvakning av kustfiskbestand' Kustrapport 1996:3. The method descriptions are under revision and differences from the hand book occur. New strategy with randomised sampling and new equipment has been used in certain areas since 2002.

Fiskeriverket (1996) Metoder for overvakning av kustfiskbestand, Kustrapport 1996:3

Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
Arrheniusplan 4
Uppsala

750 07
Sweden