If you are using management baskets to help avoid serial depletion in a multispecies fishery, from this point in the FISHE process onward only the representative species from each basket will be examined. This means that extreme care must be taken when selecting Performance Indicators (PIs) (as well as corresponding Reference Points – Step 7), and when interpreting the results of the assessments (Step 9 and 10).
After PIs have been selected based on goals and data available, ask yourself if trends in the data for the representative species on each PI are likely to characterize/ represent trends for the other species in the basket. In other words, will the various factors (e.g. fishing rate, gear used, etc.) influence all species in the basket in the same way the influence the representative species? Or is there some characteristic of the other species that makes it different, such that a given PI result will not mean the same thing as it does for the representative species? It may be necessary to consult with scientists, the fishermen, or other system experts to find answers to these questions.
If you determine that PI values for the representative species may not reflect changes for all species in the basket, it may be necessary to pick a different, or a second, representative species, or to select an alternate PI to assess. Alternatively, the same representative species and PI can be used, but Reference Points can be set at levels that are appropriate for the most vulnerable species in the basket. See Step 7 for more information.