ASPIC Software

for fishery surplus-production modeling

swordfish, Xiphias gladius

Nonendorsement: Tradenames are used on this page to identify computer hardware and software. Links to other products are offered for the user's convenience. Nothing here implies endorsement of any product by the author. All software should be evaluated by the user for suitability, safety, and correct operation.

ASPIC synopsis

ASPIC is a computer program for fisheries stock assessment work. Building on earlier work by Graham, Schaefer, Pella, Tomlinson, Fletcher, and others, ASPIC program implements methods described in Prager (1994) and Prager et al. (1996) to fit a nonequilibrium surplus-production model to data on fish catch and relative abundance.

Features of ASPIC 7 include:

ASPIC and related programs are available free of charge, but with no warranty of any kind.  Because of licensing restrictions on some subroutines, only compiled versions for Windows are available here.  If you require source code (e.g., to run ASPIC on a different operating system), please contact the author.

ASPIC downloads

Current Version.  Download ASPIC 7 here as a Windows installer. To install, just run the installer.

Previous Version.  Download ASPIC 5 here as a Windows installer. To install, just run the installer.

Either installation will include these items:

Please note: Reported bugs are fixed promptly. For best results, please use the current version of ASPIC.

ASPIC news

• Apr 1, 2017: ASPIC version 7.05. Remove "BETA" designation from main output file. No changes to programs.

• Sep 2, 2016: ASPIC version 7.04. Minor corrections to manual. No changes to programs.

• Sep 17, 2015: ASPIC version 7.03. Installer now includes change log and program aspic5to7 for conversion of ASPIC 5 input files.

• Oct 28, 2014: ASPIC version 7.01. This fixes a bug in R output from ASPIC 7.00.

• Aug 8, 2014: ASPIC version 7.00. This is a major revision with a new input-file format (a conversion program is included). The main new features are two new estimation methods (maximum likelihood, maximum a posteriori [ML with priors]), revised parameterization (MSY and Fmsy instead of MSY and K), enlarged data extents, new sample files, and a reorganized User's Guide.

You can install ASPIC 7 in parallel with ASPIC 5 by first removing ASPIC 5 and reinstalling it with the installer on this page. Then, install ASPIC 7. The installation location of ASPIC 5 working files (including samples) has been changed from ASPIC to ASPIC5 in Windows's All Users or Public Documents directory. You will need to migrate your data files, if any, from the old directory manually.

• August 8, 2015: ASPIC version 5.57. You can avoid file-overwrite confirmation by putting a minus sign in front of the verbosity setting. Be careful! This version also installs to different directories, to avoid collisions with ASPIC 7.

Related files and programs

ASPIC User's Guides

When you download ASPIC, a copy of the User’s Guide is included. If you would like to download a User’s Guide by itself, here are links for the ASPIC 7 User’s Guide and the ASPIC 5 User’s Guide.

ASPIC Change Log

Find out what has changed in the most recent version. Click to download.

PrintFile

Some ASPIC users find this freeware utility handy for printing ASPIC output files, which are 120 characters wide. PrintFile was written by Peter Lerup of Malmo, Sweden.

ConTEXT

For editing ASPIC input files, an editor that can mark and move rectangular blocks is useful. ConTEXT, a freeware programmer's editor, offers that ability. ConTEXT was written by Eden Kirin of Zagreb, Croatia.