scholarly journals Fisheries management for regime-based ecosystems: a management strategy evaluation for the snow crab fishery in the eastern Bering Sea

2012 ◽  
Vol 70 (5) ◽  
pp. 955-967 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cody S. Szuwalski ◽  
André E. Punt
Keyword(s):  
Fisheries Management ◽  
Bering Sea ◽  
Management Strategy ◽  
Management Strategies ◽  
Regime Shifts ◽  
Snow Crab ◽  
Management Strategy Evaluation ◽  
Eastern Bering Sea ◽  
Strategy Evaluation ◽  
Spawning Biomass

Abstract Szuwalski, C., and Punt A. E. 2013. Fisheries management for regime-based ecosystems: a management strategy evaluation for the snow crab fishery in the eastern Bering Sea. – ICES Journal of Marine Science, 70: 955–967. Regime shifts are a prominent feature of the physical environment of some ecosystems and have the potential to influence stock productivity. However, few management strategies or harvest control rules (HCRs) consider the possibility of changes in stock productivity. A management strategy evaluation is conducted for the snow crab (Chionoecetes opilio) fishery in the eastern Bering Sea, an ecosystem influenced by regime shifts. Operating models that project recruitment as a single average (i.e. the current basis for management advice), regime-based with no relationship between recruitment and spawning biomass, and regime-based with control of recruitment oscillating between environmental conditions and spawning biomass are considered. An HCR that accounts for shifts in recruitment regime is compared with the status quo HCR for each operating model. The regime-based HCR increases yield and decreases variability in yield at the cost of a higher probability of overfishing in regime-based systems. However, the regime-based HCR slightly decreases yield (no change in variability) and increases the probability of overfishing in non-regime-based systems. Identifying changes in productivity that are definitely driven by environmental regime rather than fishing pressure is the largest difficulty in implementing these rules.

scholarly journals Integrating management strategy evaluation into fisheries management: advancing best practices for stakeholder inclusion based on an MSE for Northeast US Atlantic herring,

2019 ◽  
Vol 76 (7) ◽  
pp. 1103-1111 ◽  
Author(s):  
R.G. Feeney ◽  
D.V. Boelke ◽  
J.J. Deroba ◽  
S. Gaichas ◽  
B.J. Irwin ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Best Practices ◽  
New England ◽  
Fisheries Management ◽  
Management Strategy ◽  
Fishery Management ◽  
Lessons Learned ◽  
Clupea Harengus ◽  
Atlantic Herring ◽  
Management Strategy Evaluation ◽  
Strategy Evaluation

The New England Fishery Management Council used management strategy evaluation (MSE) to evaluate possible harvest control rules for Atlantic herring (Clupea harengus), the first MSE in the US and perhaps globally to use open-invitation, public workshops for input. Stakeholder inclusion can increase both realism and likelihood of use by managers, but inclusivity is not achieved easily. Here, self-selected participants had diverse backgrounds and differing levels of interest and preparedness. We describe some challenges with directly engaging the public in MSE and offer broader insights for obtaining effective public participation during a decision-making process. Conducting an open MSE aligns well with publicly driven management but requires clear goals and communication. Investment in effective organizers, impartial facilitators, and knowledgeable analysts can improve communication and understanding of MSE to the betterment of fisheries management. We aim to further MSE best practices on integrating stakeholders and hope that our lessons learned on communication, engagement, and integration of MSE into an existing management arena will be useful to other practitioners.

Management strategy evaluation of a multi-indicator adaptive framework for data-limited fisheries management

2016 ◽  
Vol 92 (4) ◽  
pp. 423-445 ◽  
Author(s):  
WJ Harford ◽  
T Gedamke ◽  
EA Babcock ◽  
R Carcamo ◽  
G McDonald ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Fisheries Management ◽  
Management Strategy ◽  
Management Strategy Evaluation ◽  
Strategy Evaluation ◽  
Adaptive Framework

A management strategy evaluation of the commercial sockeye salmon fishery in Bristol Bay, Alaska

2019 ◽  
Vol 76 (9) ◽  
pp. 1669-1683 ◽  
Author(s):  
Curry J. Cunningham ◽  
Christopher M. Anderson ◽  
Jocelyn Yun-Ling Wang ◽  
Michael Link ◽  
Ray Hilborn
Keyword(s):  
Management Strategy ◽  
Sockeye Salmon ◽  
Estimation Error ◽  
Management Strategies ◽  
Fishing Effort ◽  
Time Varying ◽  
Bristol Bay ◽  
Traditional Methods ◽  
Management Strategy Evaluation ◽  
Strategy Evaluation

Bristol Bay, Alaska, is home to the largest sockeye salmon (Oncorhynchus nerka) fishery in the world, harvesting an average of 25 million fish with an ex-vessel value exceeding US$100 million annually. Daily fishing effort is adaptively managed to achieve stock-specific escapement goals. Traditional methods for defining these goals relied on stock–recruitment analysis; however, this approach often ignores three fundamental sources of uncertainty: estimation error, implementation uncertainty, and time-varying recruitment dynamics. To compare escapement goal alternatives, we conducted a management strategy evaluation that simulated time-varying recruitment across production regimes and replicated the daily in-season management process. Results indicate (i) implementation uncertainty can be reasonably approximated with simple rules reflecting fishery managers’ daily decision process; (ii) despite implementation uncertainty, escapement goals are likely to be realized or exceeded, on average; and (iii) management strategies targeting escapement levels estimated by traditional methods to produce maximum sustainable yield may result in lower catch and greater variability in fishing opportunity compared with a strategy with defining high and low escapement goals that are targeted depending on assessed run size, which may maximize future catch while reducing the frequency of extremely low harvests.

scholarly journals Simulation-based management strategy evaluation: ignorance disguised as mathematics?

2009 ◽  
Vol 66 (4) ◽  
pp. 754-762 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marie-Joëlle Rochet ◽  
Jake C. Rice
Keyword(s):  
Monte Carlo ◽  
Monte Carlo Simulations ◽  
Management Strategy ◽  
Management Strategies ◽  
Stochastic Modelling ◽  
Alternative Methods ◽  
Risk Level ◽  
Management Strategy Evaluation ◽  
Strategy Evaluation ◽  
Simulation Based

Abstract Rochet, M-J. and Rice, J. C. 2009. Simulation-based management strategy evaluation: ignorance disguised as mathematics? – ICES Journal of Marine Science, 66: 754–762. Simulation-based management strategy evaluations are increasingly developed and used for science advice in support of fisheries management, along with risk evaluation and decision analysis. These methods tackle the problem of uncertainty in fisheries systems and data by modelling uncertainty in two ways. For quantities that are difficult to measure accurately or are inherently variable, variables are replaced by probability distributions, and system dynamics are simulated by Monte Carlo simulations, drawing numbers from these distributions. For processes that are not fully understood, arrays of model formulations that might underlie the observed patterns are developed, each is assumed successively, and the results of the corresponding arrays of model results are then combined. We argue that these approaches have several paradoxical features. Stochastic modelling of uncertainty is paradoxical, because it implies knowing more than deterministic approaches: to know the distribution of a quantity requires more information than only estimating its expected value. To combine the results of Monte Carlo simulations with different model formulations may be paradoxical if outcomes of concern are unlikely under some formulations but very likely under others, whereas the reported uncertainty from combined results may produce a risk level that does not occur under any plausible assumed formulation. Moreover, risk estimates of the probability of undesirable outcomes are often statements about likelihood of events that were seldom observed and lie in the tails of the simulated distributions, where the results of Monte Carlo simulation are the least reliable. These potential paradoxes lead us to suggest that greater attention be given to alternative methods to evaluate risks or management strategies, such as qualitative methods and empirical post hoc analyses.

scholarly journals Purported flaws in management strategy evaluation: basic problems or misinterpretations?

2010 ◽  
Vol 67 (3) ◽  
pp. 567-574 ◽  
Author(s):  
Douglas S. Butterworth ◽  
Nokome Bentley ◽  
José A. A. De Oliveira ◽  
Gregory P. Donovan ◽  
Laurence T. Kell ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Fisheries Management ◽  
Management Strategy ◽  
Sampling Method ◽  
Parametric Bootstrap ◽  
Need For Care ◽  
Tail Probabilities ◽  
Management Level ◽  
Management Strategy Evaluation ◽  
Strategy Evaluation ◽  
Management Procedures

Abstract Butterworth, D. S., Bentley, N., De Oliveira, J. A. A., Donovan, G. P., Kell, L. T., Parma, A. M., Punt, A. E., Sainsbury, K. J., Smith, A. D. M., and Stokes, T. K. 2010. Purported flaws in management strategy evaluation: basic problems or misinterpretations? – ICES Journal of Marine Science, 67: 567–574. Rochet and Rice, while recognizing management strategy evaluation (MSE) as an important step forward in fisheries management, level a number of criticisms at its implementation. Some of their points are sound, such as the need for care in representing uncertainties and for thorough documentation of the process. However, others evidence important misunderstandings. Although the difficulties in estimating tail probabilities and risks, as discussed by Rochet and Rice, are well known, their arguments that Efron's non-parametric bootstrap re-sampling method underestimates the probabilities of low values are flawed. In any case, though, the focus of MSEs is primarily on comparing performance and robustness across alternative management procedures (MPs), rather than on estimating absolute levels of risk. Qualitative methods can augment MSE, but their limitations also need to be recognized. Intelligence certainly needs to play a role in fisheries management, but not at the level of tinkering in the provision of annual advice, which Rochet and Rice apparently advocate, inter alia because this runs the risk of advice following noise rather than signal. Instead, intelligence should come into play in the exercise of oversight through the process of multiannual reviews of MSE and associated MPs. A number of examples are given of the process of interaction with stakeholders which should characterize MSE.

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