Gulf of Maine Council

Indicator Matrix for Fisheries and Aquaculture

Category	Indicator	Scientifically Valid	Responsive to Change	Cause and Effect Link	Accurate Data Available	Relevant to Users	Comparable Regionally	Useful at Different Scales	Comparable to Targets, Thresholds, or Standards	Indicates a condition, (ie not a measurement only)
Biomass/Population Levels	Proportions of stock at or above targeted abundance or biomass	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	?	No	Yes	Yes
	Status of targeted fishery resource	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	?	No	Yes	Yes
	Population levels for selected species (could include non-targeted species like marine mammals)	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	?	No	Yes	Yes
	Biomass trends for selected species	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	?	No	Yes	Yes
	Incidental mortality of species of concern	Yes	Yes	No	Yes ?	yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
	Canary species trends (scavenger populations, sculpins, forager species)	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	?	?	?	Yes	Yes
Bycatch and Discards	Trends in bycatch levels or rates	Yes	?	No	?	Yes	?	?	Yes ?	No
	Characteristics of discards	Yes	?	No	?	Yes	?	?	Yes ?	No
Fishery Indicators	Days at sea	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	?	Yes	No
	Fleet composition	Yes	Yes	No	Yes ?	Yes	Yes ?	?	No	No
	Fishery effort	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	No
	Commercial fishing economic value	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	No
	Market value for customers	No	Yes	No	No	?	Yes	?	No	No
	Impact of commercial landings on State/Regional economy	Yes	Yes	No	Yes ?	Yes	Yes	Yes ?	No	No
	Recreational fishing economic value	Yes	?	No	No ?	?	No ?	No	Yes	No
	Angler satisfaction	No	No	No	No	?	No	No	No	No
Habitat	Essential fish habitat	?	No	No	Yes ?	?	No	No	?	No
Knowing that there is a habitat subc. these are removed	Areas closed to fishing, both pelagic and/or benthic	?	No	No	Yes	Yes	No ?	No	Yes	No
*Is this redundant with line above?*	Marine protected areas	?	No	No	No	No ?	?	No	No	No
Spatial Distribution Spatial distribution of bottom fishing might be revisited.	Spatial distribution of bottom fishing	Yes	Yes	No	Yes ?	Yes	?	No	Yes	No
	Spatial distribution of exploited resources	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	?	No	?	No
Physical and Chemical Regime	Temperature – Revisit if Climate Change Sub. doesn’t take.	Yes	Yes	Maybe	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes
	NAO	Yes	Yes	Maybe	Yes	??	No	No	No	Yes
	Salinity	Yes	Yes	Maybe	Yes	No?	Yes	Yes	No	Yes
	Sulfides
Aquaculture Indicators	Aquaculture economic value	??	??	No	??	??	Yes?	??	Yes?	No
*Redundant?*	Market value from aquaculture for customers	No	??	No	??	??	Yes	??	No	No
	Impact of aquaculture on State/Regional economy	Yes	??	No	??	Yes	??	??	No	No
	Leased acres	??	??	No	??	??	??	??	??	No
	Production type (for example, bottom shellfish)	Yes	??	No	Yes?	??	Yes	??	No	No
	Production/leased areas per area Finfish Shellfish
	Number of farms in an area Finfish Shellfish
Size	Mean length	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes
	Mean weight	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	??	Yes	No	Yes	Yes
	Size spectra slope	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	No	Yes	No	Yes	Yes
Production	Primary production	Yes	??, Coastally yes	No	Partly	No	Yes	??	No	Yes
	Secondary production	Yes	Yes	No	Partly	No	Yes	No	No	Yes
	Total fishery production	Yes	Yes	Maybe	Yes	Yes	Yes	??	Yes	Yes
	Total fish biomass surveyed	Yes	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	??	Yes	Yes
Diversity	Species richness (# of species)	Yes	No	No	Yes, for some groups (not all biota)	No	Yes	??	No?	Yes
Energy Flow – Trophodynamic	Mean trophic level	Yes	??	No	Yes	No	Yes	No	Yes	Yes
	Total energy flow	Yes	Yes	No	??	??	Yes	Yes?	Yes	Yes
	Flatfish to pelagic fish biomass ratio	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Maybe	Yes	??	Yes	Yes
	C/F ratios	Yes	Yes	No	Partly	No	Yes	??	Yes	Yes
	C/B ratios	Yes	Yes	No	Partly	No	Yes	??	Yes	Yes