Case Study: Risk and Uncertainty quantification of management
strategies in mixed-species and mixed-stocks fisheries
Contact:

Michael Banks, OSU, michael.banks@oregonstate.edu, Pete Lawson, NOAA,
peter.w.lawson@noaa.gov , or Lorenzo Ciannelli, OSU,
lciannel@coas.oregonstate.edu
Topic:
Do adaptive management strategies, inclusive of species- and stock-environment
relationships, improve harvest/conservation conflicts?
Background:
Mixed stocks and mixed species fisheries are focused on many sub-populations (a.k.a.,
stocks) or species within a spatial management unit. The conservation status of a stock
or species in a multi-taxa complex can be highly variable, ranging from threatened or
endangered to sustainable. Current management practices, based on quota limits,
seasonal or spatial closures, do not include species-environment or stock-environment
considerations. As a consequence, in mixed stocks (e.g., Pacific salmon) or mixed species
(e.g., groundfish complex) fisheries, management reference points can undermine
either the full economic potential of harvesting sustainable taxa, or the recovery of
threatened and endangered taxa. Increased availability of genetic data to identify stocks
within a species, and environmental and catch data to characterize stock-specific or
species-specific habitat associations opens up the possibility of assessing the
effectiveness of adaptive management strategies that target sustainable taxa while limit
harvest on threatened ones.
In this case study we seek a group of students who work together to analyze large
oceanographic and fisheries data to propose species- and stock-specific management
reference points with the overall goal to develop methods that inform new
management policy and overcome harvest/conservation conflicts. With advanced
computing and programming skills, students will develop new ‘virtual’ management
strategy scenarios progressively more complex, and for each evaluate the risk of loss of
income and of stock-species depletion. By quantifying uncertainty inherent in sampling
data and species-environment relationships, students will also assess the effectiveness
and data needs for including species- or stock-environment considerations in
management strategies.
Existing Data:
-
Location of individual Chinook salmon catches
Genotype of each individual
Oceanographic information (temperature, chl, depth of capture)
Spatial data of fishing fleet
-
Bioeconomic data (harvest price and cost data)
Data Needs:
Only a portion of the oceanographic and bioeconomic data is available and ready for
analysis. More work is needed to extract oceanographic information and develop
bioeconomic data
Desired Area(s) of Expertise for Students:
This project will require expertise in fisheries ecology, oceanography, geography,
computer science, policy analysis, social science, genetics of individual based and mixed
stock analysis, bioeconomics, math and stat.
Figure 1. Multiple species/stocks with different conservation status are harvested within a spatial unit.
Implementing new management strategies based on species-environment relationships that reduce harvest of
threatened units while maximizing profits on sustainable ones require analyses from teams of experts in
geoscience, human dimension, and data enables science.