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Multispecies management: a manager’s point of view

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posted on 2025-01-29, 15:59 authored by W. J. Brugge, M. J. Holden

Fisheries conservation measures are implemented to obtain the economic benefits which will result from efficient management of the fish stocks. These benefits are inevitably long term and the scientific advice on which they are based invariably predicts that there will be short-term losses. Neither the long-term gains nor the short term losses may be equally allocated between the different sectors which comprise the fishing industry. In this situation, proposals for legislation in the field of fisheries conservation are inevitably opposed by one or more sectors. In addition, in the present adverse economic situation of the European fisheries, fishermen claim that they will be unable to survive the period of short-term losses until the long-term benefits accrue. Because conservation measures are based on scientific advice, the best strategy for the industry to prevent the adoption of proposed legislation is adversely to criticize that advice. This management problem is examined in respect of two types of multispecies model, the species-interaction model and the flect-interaction model. The usefulness of both types of model is examined by addressing three questions to each: how credible are the models, what new problems do they present, and what solutions do they provide to present problems? The species-interaction models are very complex and incomplete because they model only a part of the fisheries ecosystem and produce results which do not provide a politically acceptable basis for management measures. In contrast, the fleet-interaction models provide a potentially powerful management decision-making tool. However, the present models are derived from single-species models, which means that management based thereon is subject to the same criticisms as that based on single-species models. It is concluded that two types of model should be merged but that this will not make it easier to introduce management measures based on the results because opposition to them essentially results from the immediate negative impact on profitability.

Article from Marine Science Symposia Vol. 193 " Multispecies models relevant to management
of living resources". Symposium held in The Hague, 2-4 October 1989. To access the remaining articles please click on the keyword "MSS Volume 193".

History

Series

ICES Marine Science Symposia

Volume

193

ISSN

2708-9216

Recommended citation

Brugge, W. J., and Holden, M. J. 1991. Multispecies m anagement: a manager's point of view. ICES Marine Science Symposia, 193: 353-358. https://doi.org/10.17895/ices.pub.19270559

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