An empirical harvest strategy for an Australian longline fishery was developed and tested using harvest strategy evaluation. The approach is based on catch rate and size composition indices and iteratively drives the population towards a target level of spawning potential ratio. The simulation model assumed traditional age-structured population dynamics. The results demonstrate that the empirical approach represents a promising feedback strategy that becomes more precautionary as data errors and recruitment variance increase. Given the urgent need for formal harvest strategies to replace ad hoc decision-making in data-poor fisheries, the approach offers considerable promise. Independent implementation at local scales across the range of a species is speculated to result in management that is robust to uncertainty about stock structure.
History
Publication title
ICES Journal of Marine Science
Volume
68
Issue
5
Pagination
947-960
ISSN
1054-3139
Department/School
Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies
Publisher
Academic Press Ltd Elsevier Science Ltd
Place of publication
24-28 Oval Rd, London, England, Nw1 7Dx
Rights statement
Copyright 2011 International Council for the Exploration of the Sea