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Long‐Term Fish Monitoring in Large Rivers: Utility of “Benchmarking” across Basins
Author(s) -
Ward David L.,
Casper Andrew F.,
Counihan Timothy D.,
Bayer Jennifer M.,
Waite Ian R.,
Kosovich John J.,
Chapman Colin G.,
Irwin Elise R.,
Sauer Jennifer S.,
Ickes Brian S.,
McKerrow Alexa J.
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
fisheries
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.725
H-Index - 79
eISSN - 1548-8446
pISSN - 0363-2415
DOI - 10.1080/03632415.2017.1276330
Subject(s) - benchmarking , fish <actinopterygii> , best practice , resource (disambiguation) , environmental resource management , term (time) , maturity (psychological) , drainage basin , computer science , fishery , environmental planning , environmental science , geography , business , cartography , management , political science , computer network , physics , marketing , quantum mechanics , economics , law , biology
In business, benchmarking is a widely used practice of comparing your own business processes to those of other comparable companies and incorporating identified best practices to improve performance. Biologists and resource managers designing and conducting monitoring programs for fish in large river systems tend to focus on single river basins or segments of large rivers, missing opportunities to learn from those conducting fish monitoring in other rivers. We briefly examine five long‐term fish monitoring programs in large rivers in the United States (Colorado, Columbia, Mississippi, Illinois, and Tallapoosa rivers) and identify opportunities for learning across programs by detailing best monitoring practices and why these practices were chosen. Although monitoring objectives, methods, and program maturity differ between each river system, examples from these five case studies illustrate the important role that long‐term monitoring programs play in interpreting temporal and spatial shifts in fish populations for both established objectives and newly emerging questions. We suggest that deliberate efforts to develop a broader collaborative network through benchmarking will facilitate sharing of ideas and development of more effective monitoring programs.