GIS in freshwater fisheries
Managing large area, such as lakes and rivers will be easier said than done, unless we
have sufficient tool to analyze, and display our data. GIS has a lot of features to conduct
spatial study, however researchers often have to utilize additional function to conduct
their research in order to have better result. General additive model (Zheng. X. 2002) and
generalized linear model (Le Pape. Olivier 2003) are some of the additional functions that
used together with GIS software.
The added value of GIS allows researchers to do quantitative measures of fish habitat in
large area such as lakes (Douglas. John 2009) and rivers (Webb. A. D. 1999). The use of
GIS in freshwater fisheries has assisted the researcher to integrate topographic data,
geology, together with other water-quality monitoring data, such as temperature and
dissolved oxygen (DO) and ecological field survey information in their analysis(Douglas.
John 2009); (Webb. A. D. 1999). Unlike marine fisheries where GIS application is very
limited (Fenzhen SU 2005), inland fisheries more likely to have advantages since it has
smaller area and has more availability of supporting data. That is because GIS application
is widely used in terrestrial area which most the freshwater fisheries associated with.
Assessing the critical area for certain species by quantifying fish habitat (Douglas. John
2009) , managing catch (Webb. A. D. 1999) and aquaculture site survey (Nath. Shree S.
2000) are the common use of GIS in inland fisheries. Fishing regulation and management
are based on this data analysis. In an example, having a good data on fish habitat such as
the location, area, number of average catches on the area and bundled with geological
data and water survey data, a fisheries manager can make a good decision of which area
should be closed and when should be opened for fisheries. Besides this, useful output and
carrying capacity of ponds, lake or river can be predicted by utilizing this result.