Freshwater Environment
Monitoring is conducted to inform the fishery management decision making process. The various steps to this process are outlined below.
Fishery management can be defined as a series of actions or interventions which can be taken to ensure the conservation, protection and improvement of fish stocks.
Appropriate fishery management should result in the sustainable development of our fishery resources meeting both our present and future needs.
Sustainable freshwater fisheries can best be achieved by working in partnerships developed between government agencies like the Loughs Agency and other groups with similar or complementary interests.
Fishery management decisions should be formed on a strong evidence base. Fishery science should provide one of the major cornerstones of good fishery management. Appropriate monitoring programmes which are carefully designed to collect important information on freshwater fish stocks and their habitats are vital to developing a strong fishery science foundation on which to build truly sustainable fishery management decision making.
