From Access to R: Shellfish Stock Assessments (KB-36-002-033)

The aim is to develop documented R scripts for all data checks and stock estimate calculations in the WOT Shellfish stock assessments. These are presently performed in Access, which requires Access expertise and is relatively time consuming. We expect to increase efficiency (faster), accuracy (better documentation, less prone to mistakes) and transparency of the stock estimations (documentation, version control), and to make our calculation methods future proof by adopting a modern and widely accepted open source tool that connects very well to the FRISBE database. We will develop R scripts for all necessary stages, including spatial checks (distribution maps), corrections, stock estimates and extrapolations of the cockle stock from spring to autumn, as well as reporting (MarkDown). These scripts will be tested, validated and instructed to a small group of users (survey leaders). In 2021 we developed many functions and addressed difficulties in survey methodology such as inconsistencies between different input databases. In 2022 we propose to finalize a UI for the surveys worked on in 2021 and develop scripts and UI for the remaining surveys.