Planning & Designing Fish Habitat Assessments – Online – June 19th, 2024

Assessing fish habitat has a long history as an integral part of successful fisheries management; it is even more important today as the challenges facing it are more profound than ever. The truism “no habitat; no fish” remains true in the 21st Century. There exist a myriad of methods to assess habitat and this array can be confusing when faced with the decisions of which specific sampling methods to use for a given project. What are the strengths and weaknesses of the different approaches?

In this MicroCourse we examine how to design fish habitat assessments based on the desired project objective. Are we doing a baseline survey in advance of a proposed development? A reconnaissance survey? Or perhaps designing a monitoring program that will measure potential habitat changes downstream from a mine or forestry project? Perhaps an assessment to identify limiting factors to fish production and from this design restoration activities?

Each of these will require different approaches to the assessment to gather the important information on which to make decisions. Planning & Designing Fish Habitat Assessments will provide guidance on how to select the appropriate methods depending upon the purpose of the survey.

Course will be 4 hours long.