Fal Estuary Native Oyster Fishery Survey Data, 1950-1988

From 1950 to 1988, the Centre for Environment, Fisheries & Aquaculture Science (Cefas) conducted a hand-dredge survey of the native Fal oyster fishery (Ostrea edulis) within the Fal estuary. Survey tows were carried out at specific waypoints according to a standard protocol. The dataset is aggregated by the Government Digital Service via the eu_open_data platform.

Use Cases

• Modeling long-term oyster population trends based on the 38-year survey period.
• Analyzing spatial distribution of oyster beds based on survey waypoints within the estuary.
• Assessing the impact of environmental changes on a native species fishery based on the standardized survey protocol.

Strengths

• Covers a 38-year time series from 1950 to 1988, enabling long-term trend analysis.
• Data collection followed a standardized protocol for survey tows, suggesting methodological consistency.
• Focuses on a specific native species (Ostrea edulis) in a defined geographic area (Fal estuary).

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment for large-scale modeling.
• Last update date is unknown; freshness unverified.

Provenance

Source

Centre for Environment, Fisheries & Aquaculture Science (Cefas)

Collection Method

Hand-dredge survey tows at specific waypoints within the fishery.

Time Range

1950 to 1988

Freshness

Historical data; last updated date is unknown.

Geography

Fal estuary