Criteria
The criteria for meeting the accreditation standard are based on eight assessment areas, focusing on different aspects of the fishery. These are habitat, nutrition, stocking, water quality fish health, predation stress, competition angling and exploitation rates. Each of these aspects is carefully assessed and an action is agreed with the fishery to either improve or maintain standards.
Physical Habitat
The habitat of stillwaters should be as natural and diverse as possible and include: submerged water plants; emergent and marginal vegetation; overhanging trees and bushes; wood in margins and sunk in deep water (out of fishing range) for added cover; deep water (>2m) to provide sanctuary for temperature extremes; shallow water for spawning and as fry habitat.
Nutrition
Plant presence in the margins, bait and fish diet, over/under feeding of the fish are all assessed.
Stocking
The assessment encompasses species suitability to the habitat, the stocking policy of the fishery and compliance with legislation and bio-security.
Water Quality
Water quality criteria to be considered include dissolved oxygen content, ammonia concentrations and aeration techniques, monitoring and record keeping.
Fish Health
This section covers bio-security measures, species suitability, stock introduction and water quality monitoring.
Predation
The fishery must provide adequate cover and refuge for fish from avian, mammalian and other fish predators.
Competition Angling
It will be necessary to have a competition policy in place, if appropriate, covering the equipment in use and other fish-related welfare matters.
Exploitation Rates
The fishery owner or manager must be able to make good estimates of exploitation rates based on records of angler visits, stock density and average catches, perhaps backed by fish stock surveys. This will help in assessing standards based on good record keeping.
Securing Fish Welfare By Raising Fishery Standards