Threshold Management Policies for Exploited Populations
Under a threshold management policy, harvesting occurs at a constant rate but ceases when a population drops below a threshold. A simulation model of an age-structured population with stochastic recruitment was constructed with such a harvest policy with several threshold levels. Other factors were...
Published in: | Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences |
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Main Authors: | , , |
Format: | Article in Journal/Newspaper |
Language: | English |
Published: |
Canadian Science Publishing
1990
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Subjects: | |
Online Access: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1139/f90-226 http://www.nrcresearchpress.com/doi/pdf/10.1139/f90-226 |
Summary: | Under a threshold management policy, harvesting occurs at a constant rate but ceases when a population drops below a threshold. A simulation model of an age-structured population with stochastic recruitment was constructed with such a harvest policy with several threshold levels. Other factors were fishing mortality, recruitment, and initial biomass. The objective function was a weighted function of average yield and standard deviation over a planning horizon. First, we determined the optimal threshold given fishing mortality. Secondly, we determined optimal threshold and fishing mortality, simultaneously. In application to eastern Bering Sea pollock, a threshold management policy always increased average yield over a non-threshold policy. For the first problem, optimal threshold levels ranged from 20 to 30% of pristine biomass. For the second problem, each scenario had a unique threshold and fishing mortality, with fishing mortality slightly above the maximum sustainable yield (MSY) level and a threshold range of 25–50%. These results were robust in regard to other factors. Benefits of the threshold policy were greater with a Ricker spawner-recruit model and with higher fishing mortality. The success of the threshold management policy is due to the relatively rapid rebuilding of a population to levels producing MSY. |
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