Tools for climate-resilient fisheries management
Extending capabilities of management strategy evaluation frameworks
Modern fisheries management is a complex process involving data-intensive stock assessment models and multiple stakeholder participation. The development of flexible fisheries management plans that can effectively respond to climate change and/or other unexpected phenomena is paramount in ensuring that fisheries remain productive.
Management Strategy Evaluation (MSE) is a framework that attempts to improve how we manage fish stocks. It does this by simulating multiple management plans under different assumptions including but not limited to
- How climate might vary in the future and how it might affect the stock itself
- How intensively the stock will be fished and under what thresholds (Harvest control rules)
- How good is our current understanding of the biological reality of the fish stock? Is it good or poor?
- How the stock assessment itself is conducted
This simulation framework results in a number of different management plans and possible outcomes from which the most balanced one can be chosen for implementation. Then after a certain amount of time, the MSE will be run again to see how successful it was in the previous implementation. This results in a (hopefully) ever improving feedback loop that will lead to better management outcomes over time.