CATCHABILITY
catchability: translation
the extent to which a stock is susceptible to fishing, the part of a stock that is caught over a defined unit of time or fishing effort; quantitatively, the proportion of the stock removed by a defined unit of fishing effort. In pelagic fishes, an inverse function of stock biomass. When it is 0.01 or less it can be used as an instantaneous rate in measuring population change (Ricker, 1975). In fisheries models, the factor (q) relating abundance to stock size (x
q.N) and fishing mortality to fishing effort (F
qf.). Also called catchability coefficient, force of fishing mortality. Abbreviated as q or q