Marine Scotland Science: directory

Dr Niall G Fallon

Fisheries Assessment and Advice Programme
Stock Assessment & Modelling Group
Fish Population Modeller

E-mail: niall.fallon@gov.scot

Marine Scotland Science, Marine Laboratory, 375 Victoria Road, Aberdeen, AB11 9DB, UK

Details of specialism

I am interested in all aspects of fish & shellfish population biology, and ecology, and how they relate to stock assessment and the provision of scientific advice.

Within those areas my focuses currently include:

• quality control of both commercial fleet and scientific survey data
• assessment of Nephrops norvegicus stocks off the west coast of Scotland
• provision of scientific advice for Nephrops stocks off the west coast of Scotland
• assessment of West of Scotland whiting
• evaluation of abundance estimation methods currently used for Nephrops
• investigation of the environmental impacts of the Scottish Nephrops fleet

Main policy links

• stock assessment
• fishery data analysis
• scientific advice

External committees and responsibilities

• member of the ICES Working Group for the Celtic Seas Ecoregion 
• member of the ICES Working Group on Nephrops Surveys
• invited reviewer for scientific journals
• University of Aberdeen – visiting lecturer

Papers of relevance

Fernandes PG and Fallon NG (2020) Fish distributions reveal discrepancies between zonal attachment and quota allocations. Conservation Letters 13, e12702.

Baudron AR, Serpetti N, Fallon NG, Heymans JJ and Fernandes PG (2019) Can the common fisheries policy achieve good environmental status in exploited ecosystems: The west of Scotland demersal fisheries example. Fisheries Research 211, 217-230.

Fallon NG, Fielding S and Fernandes PG (2016) Classification of Southern Ocean krill and icefish echoes using random forests. ICES Journal of Marine Science 73, 1998–2008.