PT 16, Section 2, Question 16. Forum

[perry24]

Why is the answer E and not C? Thanks!

[Sandro]

Because the conclusion is that shark populations are at the same level because the CPUE has been constant.


The CPUE measures how many they catch per km of net ( or something). So if you had a stable population, and fishers kept getting a stable CPUE and nothing else changed... you could conclude the population is stable.


BUT this is weakening. If E is true, that means that the fishers are increasing their efficiency which should yield an increase in CPUE - if CPUE didnt increase after this efficiency increase, then it is possible that the population decreased and this increase in CPUE made up for it to stay stable.

Is that clear? I circled E when i took this PT a couple days ago but was an idiot and picked D even though its completely out of scope with the word "most" and just flat out irrelevant.

[Sandro]

and C is irrellevant. So what if there is a significant risk to shark population by fishers catching them when not specifically fishing for them. The key here is the language used - it doesnt say that sharks were killed this way. It just says , oh this is a risk!! For all you know there could be no other fisherman types in South Australia. This also has no bearing on CPUE staying steady - population steady relationship.

[perry24]

Yes, that makes sense. I didn't think of it that way. It seems like in every LR Section, there are 1 or 2 questions that I just won't be able to get. I guess this was just one of them.

Anyway, thank you very much!