Abstract
BackgroundAlthough surface freshwater comprises < 0.01% of the total water volume of earth, freshwater inland capture fisheries and aquaculture represent 40% of the global reported finfish harvest. While the social, economic, and ecological importance of inland fish and fisheries is difficult to overstate, they are often undervalued and underappreciated. Accurate information about these highly dispersed fisheries is inherently difficult to acquire, often unreported, and not collected in a standardized format globally. A standardized river fishery database is needed for managing aquatic systems as well as for defining relevant development policies. Here, we describe our methodology to search, identify, and describe available river fisheries information to create a harmonized global database of river fisheries harvest. This database will provide the first global database of spatially and temporally explicit river fisheries data. The database can be used to identify locations, hotspots of data collection, and gaps in existing knowledge and will be especially important to inform studies and management at larger spatial scales (i.e., watershed, regional, or global scales). This database will also be critical for developing fish biomass models for rivers, which can provide managers with information critical for decision-making, such as improved valuation methods for river fish and fisheries.MethodsThis systematic map protocol describes the methodology to search, identify, and describe available information on river fish and fisheries across the globe. We define river fisheries as “both capture and aquaculture of river finfish species for food, income, or recreation”. River fish species are those finfish that live part, or all of their lives in rivers. The searches will be conducted for the period from 1950 to present using bibliographic databases and grey literature sources. To identify relevant evidence, pre-defined inclusion and exclusion criteria will be used to screen articles at title, abstract, and full text. A searchable database containing extracted meta-data from relevant included studies will be developed and presented as a geodatabase. The final systematic map will consist of a descriptive narrative report of the distribution and content of river fish literature including a geodatabase of available information.
Highlights
Surface freshwater comprises < 0.01% of the total water volume of earth, freshwater inland capture fisheries and aquaculture represent 40% of the global reported finfish harvest
River fisheries, defined as both capture and aquaculture of river fish species for food, income, or recreation contribute substantially to meeting challenges faced by individuals, society, and the environment in a changing global landscape [1, 2]
Data related to riverine fisheries are not collected in any standardized format globally [9] and the extent and distribution of these fisheries has never been adequately assessed in aggregate
Summary
Searches River list The geographic scope of this initial systematic map targets 60 rivers around the world (Table 2). The large amount of grey literature sites (67) reflect the amount of practitioner-based research and data generated regarding inland fisheries This list of databases, search engines, and sites was designed to return as comprehensive set of broad range results as possible by including both general search engines (i.e., Google Scholar), databases (i.e. Web of Science) and institutional specific databases [25]. In order to be included in the final database and map, a study must meet all of the following criteria: Relevant subjects River or river aquaculture fish species (as identified by Fishbase.org). Understanding the distribution of current information can help target future studies to fill these gaps and reduce redundant data collection This information could be used to frame systematic review questions and research regarding river fisheries.
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