BIOLOGICAL REFERENCE POINTS

biological reference points: translation

Indicators or signposts against which the status of a stock can be judged. Two types are often used: based on fishing mortality and based on the sustainability of recruitment. Reference points can be either desirable targets (target reference points) or minimum biologically acceptable limits (limit reference points).

Fishing mortality rates that may provide acceptable protection against growth overfishing and/or recruitment overfishing for a particular stock. They are usually calculated from equilibrium yield-per-recruit curves, spawning stock biomass-per-recruit curves and stock recruitment data. Examples are F_0.1, F_max and F_med.