2021 Cornwall IFCA Fal Oyster Survey: Species Abundance in Management Areas

Cornwall Inshore Fisheries and Conservation Authority (IFCA) conducts annual dredge surveys within the Fal Oyster Fishery. The 2021 survey recorded counts of native oysters, queen and variegated scallops, and slipper limpets across 32 sites, analyzed by three management areas. The dataset likely contains information on species distribution, substrate types, and bycatch.

Use Cases

• Modeling native oyster (Ostrea edulis) population trends based on annual survey counts.
• Analyzing the co-distribution of scallops (Aequipecten opercularis, Mimachlamys varia) and the invasive slipper limpet (Crepidula fornicata).
• Assessing habitat suitability based on recorded substrate types across the fishery.
• Evaluating fishery management effectiveness by comparing data across designated Management Areas A, B, and C.

Strengths

• Contains specific species counts for 2021: 1064 oysters, 2579 scallops, and 1879 slipper limpets.
• Survey methodology is described as annual dredge surveys conducted since 2014, suggesting a time-series potential.
• Data is spatially structured, with results analyzed across three distinct Management Areas.

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 beyond the 2021 survey year.

Provenance

Source

Cornwall Inshore Fisheries and Conservation Authority (IFCA), aggregated via Government Digital Service on eu_open_data.

Collection Method

Annual dredge surveys at predetermined sites within the Fal Oyster Fishery.

Time Range

2021 (part of an ongoing series since 2014).

Freshness

Data is from a 2021 survey; update frequency is annual but not confirmed for subsequent years.

Geography

River Fal, Cornwall, United Kingdom.