The growing value of age: exploring economic gains from age-specific harvesting in the Northeast Arctic cod fishery

• Published in: Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
• Main Author: Diekert, Florian K.
• Other Authors: Chen, Yong
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Canadian Science Publishing 2013
• Subjects: Arctic cod; Gadus morhua; Northeast Arctic cod
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1139/cjfas-2012-0471; http://www.nrcresearchpress.com/doi/full-xml/10.1139/cjfas-2012-0471; http://www.nrcresearchpress.com/doi/pdf/10.1139/cjfas-2012-0471

The importance of a fish stock’s age structure is increasingly recognized in economics and ecology. Still, current policies predominately rely on measures of the aggregate biomass. Here, a detailed bio-economic model is calibrated on the Northeast Arctic cod (Gadus morhua) fishery to assess the efficiency gains from controlling gear selectivity and explore them under a suite of different scenarios. While the absolute size of economic gains varies drastically with the particular biological modeling assumptions, the relative economic gains from age-differentiated management show that it is high time to move beyond traditional reference points.