Fisheries Infosite

Stock

Term
Stock
Acronym


Also called
Fish stock
See also


Definition
For the purposes of the Fisheries Act 1996, a stock is any fish, aquatic life or seaweed of one or more species that are treated as a unit for the purposes of fisheries management. For the purposes of the Harvest Strategy Standard, a biological stock is a population of a given species that forms a reproductive unit and spawns little if at all with other units. However, there are many uncertainties in defining spatial and temporal geographical boundaries for such biological units that are compatible with established data collection systems. For this reason, the term “stock” is often synonymous with an assessment / management unit, even if there is migration or mixing of some components of the assessment/management unit between areas. This term is defined in the Fisheries Act.