The draft summary report of the Symposium was adopted during the Eighth Session of EIFAC (6–10 May 1974), and arising from the recommendations made in the report the session recommended that:
Recommendation 74/5
Individual workers and institutes consider the development of new methodologies or adaptations of existing ones for the survey, monitoring and appraisal of fishery resources, in difficult-to-sample habitats, concentrating particularly on rivers with strong currents;
Individual workers consider and define the various attributes of fish populations which can serve to indicate deterioration of their environment or productive capacities;
Due to current lack of information on the performance of gears relative to the populations sampled, or to other methods of sampling the same population, problems of intercalibration should form an area of concentration for future research by Member Nations.
It was concluded that the material presented at the Symposium both as individual papers or during the discussions is a valuable collection of information which should be published. It was therefore recommended:
Recommendation 74/6
That the report and proceedings of the Symposium, suitably edited, be published as soon as possible. It was further felt that, with apprepriate elaboration, this body of data could form the basis for a manual of methods for the appraisal, monitoring and survey of fish populations in fresh waters. It was accordingly recommended:
Recommendation 74/7
That a working party should be set up to prepare a digest of all the various techniques covered by the Symposium to form a manual similar to these prepared by FAO in other fields. It was also considered that the employment of a consultant would be valuable in this respect. Such a manual should not aim solely at indicating a single technique which could be used in a specific situation, but a whole range of techniques which could be used singly or in combination.
