CFP Cheat Sheet 2026

The 30 highest-yield CFP facts, distilled from real exam questions. Print it, save it as a PDF, or study it here — free, no sign-up.

1. What is a quality audit in CFP practice? → Evaluating whether quality standards and procedures are followed
2. What role do wetlands play in fish habitat? → Provide habitat for fish
3. What is the effect of pollution on fish habitats? → Degrades water quality and habitats
4. Which metric best describes the temporal stability of a fish community at a monitoring site across multiple years? → Bray-Curtis similarity index calculated between annual samples
5. How can fisheries assessments contribute to conservation? → By reducing water pollution
6. Which pathogen is responsible for bacterial kidney disease (BKD) in salmonids and is a major concern in US hatcheries? → Renibacterium salmoninarum
7. What is the importance of continuing education for CFP professionals in Environmental Impact Assessment? → Maintaining current knowledge and adapting to industry changes
8. In the von Bertalanffy growth function, what does the parameter K represent? → The curvature parameter indicating how fast the fish approaches its maximum size
9. A biologist wants to assess the temperature regime of a stream without continuous monitoring. Which approach provides the best temporal resolution at low cost? → Continuous recording with inexpensive data loggers (iButtons or HOBO loggers)
10. In anaerobic pond sediments, which process primarily drives the release of phosphorus from iron-bound forms? → Reductive dissolution of iron oxyhydroxides releasing bound phosphorus
11. In ovoviviparous fish reproduction, how does embryo development occur? → Eggs are retained internally and young are born live, nourished by egg yolk
12. What is the role of fisheries policy? → To regulate and manage fishery resources
13. What is a needs assessment in CFP Soil Science & Analysis practice? → Identifying gaps between current conditions and desired outcomes
14. What is the primary goal of large wood (LW) placement in stream restoration? → Create hydraulic complexity, pools, and cover for fish
15. Which age-determination method is most commonly used for freshwater fishes in the US? → Scale annuli
16. Which U.S. federal program provides cost-share funding to landowners who voluntarily restore and protect wetlands and grasslands important to fish and wildlife? → Wetlands Reserve Easement (WRE) under ACEP
17. Which parameter best quantifies the capacity of water to resist acidification from acid rain or acid mine drainage? → Acid neutralizing capacity (ANC) / alkalinity
18. When monitoring fish passage efficiency at a dam, which metric directly measures the proportion of fish successfully navigating the upstream passage facility? → Passage efficiency = fish counted upstream / fish counted at the base of the dam
19. How does professional liability insurance protect CFP practitioners? → Covering financial losses from claims of negligence or errors
20. When building a predictive habitat model for a rare fish species using GIS, overfitting the model to training locations is best diagnosed by: → Evaluating model performance on withheld test data using AUC or other metrics
21. In a fyke net survey, the wings of the net are designed to: → Guide fish into the trap through the throat
22. Bentonite clay is sometimes used in fish pond construction because it: → Has extremely low permeability when hydrated, reducing seepage
23. What is the purpose of a virtual population analysis (VPA) in fisheries science? → Reconstruct historical population size and fishing mortality from catch-at-age data
24. What is the role of quotas in fisheries management? → To increase fish harvests
25. Which document records the federal agency's final decision on a proposed action analyzed in an EIS, including mitigation commitments? → Record of Decision (ROD)
26. Soil organic matter primarily benefits pond productivity by: → Serving as a slow-release nutrient source and improving water retention
27. Which management approach sets a cap on total fishing mortality and then allocates individual shares of that cap to participants? → Individual Fishing Quotas (IFQs)
28. A fisheries biologist calculates a relative stock density (RSD) of 15 for a largemouth bass population. What does this low value indicate? → Few fish have reached quality size relative to the number of stock-size fish
29. What is the primary function of the lateral line system in fish? → Sensing water pressure changes and vibrations
30. Which international body sets binding catch limits for Atlantic bluefin tuna that U.S. domestic regulations must align with? → International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT)