Report card, a tool for monitoring migratory fish: concept and reflection on the choice of indicators for the Allis shad population in the Gironde-Garonne-Dordogne catchment area

Abstract

Report card is a tool commonly used in many branches of industry, but its basic principle is often misunderstood. Its application in the case of concerted management for migratory fishes resources requires to be reviewed.Analysis of existing report card highlight that report card is a decision-support tool arranged in a set of indicators informing the pilot of a system about the state of this system and enabling him to act in order to achieve its objectives. Using the example of a report card dedicated to the Allis shad population of the Gironde Garonne Dordogne watershed, we present how such a tool can be set up and which are the external elements required (the pilot, the system, the management targets, the knowledge database). Then we precisely detailed the pahse of building and selection of the relevant indicators. The choice of the indicators is a keystone of the report card. and identified the essential. This step was organized by generating potential indicators, determining the selection criteria, then selecting the relevant indicators. These indicators are noted, classified, presented and interpreted in a table which allow to easily identify the problems on the various levels of aggregation, and to assess the gap between the result of the report card and the targets of the pilot. A first version of the Allis shad report card was built in the framework of a concerted though between scientists. After a step of scientific validation (in progress), this version will be transferred to the CO.GE.PO.MI. of the Gironde watershed for a test phase which alos aims to strengthen the social appropriation of this decision-support tool..