Management Strategies in relation to Deep Sea Stocks.

The Management Strategy Evaluation as a potential tool.

Marina Santurtún, Guzmán Diez & Dorleta Garcia

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Useful Management Systems for the fishing activity

Management systems potentially useful for managing fishing activities can be classified on the basis of the criteria described below (a recent complete revision of Management Systems can be found in Motos & Wilson, 2006):

Systems based in the establishment of a fishing effort control Based in the control of “inputs” that can be used by the fishers in the

development of their activity. In particular, the physical characteristics of the vessels in terms of number of boats with license for fishing, and/other characteristics of the vessels, such as the technical ones or number of fishing days, the establishment of temporal or spatial fishing bans… are specified.

System based in the establishment of catches control or also named as production control

In this case, the maximum amount of catches that can be retrieved from a stock along a year or fishing periods is limited. The establishment of a Total Allowable Catch (TACs) or Individual transferable Quotas (ITQs) would be management mechanisms based in “output” control.

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• Market Systems These systems jointly with the two mentioned before (effort and catches

control) are the most popularly implemented in fisheries all around the world. However, the most traditional market tools, taxes, do not usually achieve their objectives, also they are not socially well accepted which make difficult implementation and control. Finally it has to be mentioned that the exchange of ITQs have been lately incorporated to the market system when are made on organized markets.

• Management systems based in the establishment of geographical areas for the development of the fishing activity (Territorial Use Rights in Fisheries, TURFs). Regional Zonation of the resources use

In these systems the right to fish inside a determined are is established. They respond to a regional zonation of the use of the resources. This fishing right can be also complemented limited with the control of inputs from which, for instance, the type of vessel which can access to the area of fishing zone is determined.

• Establishment of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs).The objective of the establishment of marine protected areas is to preserve the

natural “landscape” banning the development of any human activity related to the fishing. It is a specific system to preserve the marine biodiversity.

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• Management systems under an ecosystem approach .

In the last years, it has been reiterated the need that the nations develop tools for managing fishing which incorporate considerations related to the ecosystem. However, the complexity of the marine ecosystems complicates largely this task, as large amount of basic biological research is needed.

In general, it cannot be said that just one rule can assure that one specific system of management could lead to a better use of the fishing resources in comparison to other rule. The particular characteristics related to the fishing activity in one region would condition the use of one or another management system.

For instance: the disadvantage of the management systems based in the

output control is that this just control the amount of the stock captured in an indirect way. On the other hand, system based on output controls facilitate the election of a combination of inputs that minimize the costs of the fishing activity while those based on input controls incentive the use of inputs from which catches are incremented, increasing, at the same time, costs. Finally management systems based on the establishment of specific fishing areas work well for sedentary fisheries but no so well in the case of migratory or highly migratory stocks.

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I II III IV

Ling (Molva molva) no manag. no manag. TAC TAC

Blue Ling (Molva Dypterygia)

TAC TAC TAC TAC

Tusk (Brosme Brosme)

no manag. no manag.

Greater Silver Smelt (Argentina Silus)

TAC TAC TAC TAC

Orange Roughy (Hoplostethus Atlanticus)

TAC TAC TAC TAC

Roundnose Grenadier (Coryphaenoides rupestris)

TAC TAC TAC TAC

Black scabbard fish (Aphanopus carbo)

TAC,licensing system

TAC, licensing system

TAC, licensing system

Greater Forkbeard (Phycis Blennoides)

TAC TAC TAC TAC

Alfonsinos (Beryx Spp.)

TAC TAC

Red Seabream (Pagellus Bogaraveo)

V Va Vb VI VII

TAClicenses, MLS, TAC TAC TAC

TAC, protected areas, catch limited by vessel

TAC TAC

TAC TAClicenses, effort limitation

TAC TAC

TAC licenceslicenses mim. landing size

TAC TAC

TACTAC,proteced areas

TAC, protected areas

TAC mim landing size,

TAC

TAC, licensing system

TAC, licensing system

TAC, licensing system

TAC, licensing system

TAC TAC TAC TAC TAC

TAC TAC TAC

TAC TAC

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Ling (Molva molva)

Blue Ling (Molva Dypterygia)

Tusk (Brosme Brosme)

Greater Silver Smelt (Argentina Silus)

Orange Roughy (Hoplostethus Atlanticus)

Roundnose Grenadier (Coryphaenoides rupestris)

Black scabbard fish (Aphanopus carbo)

Greater Forkbeard (Phycis Blennoides)

Alfonsinos (Beryx Spp.)

Red Seabream (Pagellus Bogaraveo)

VIII IX X XII XIIb XIII XIV

TAC TAC TAC TAC TAC TAC

TAC TAC TAC TACclosed areas

effort limitation

TAC

TAC TAC TAC TAC TAC

TAC TAC TAC TAC TAC

TAC TAC TAC TACTAC biennal

TAC

TAC, licensing system

TAC, licensing system

TAC, licensing system

TAC, licensing system

TAC TAC TAC TAC TAC TAC TAC

TAC TACTAC, trawl forbidden

TAC TAC

TAC

TAC*Regional Recovery Plan

TAC, trawl forbidden, quota by vessel

* closure of the fishing, season during two and half months (15 January–31 March), minimum size of fish retained or landed (33 cm total length), authorized vessels list, hook size, maximum hooks per line (100), maximum number of lines per boat (30), and maximum number of automatic machines for hauling per boat (3), restricted ports for landing the red sea bream catches (only Tarifa and Algeciras)

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What can be done in the context of DEEPFISHMAN?..

Using Management Strategy Evaluation approach (MSE).

Trying to find the management procedure that obtains the best results in terms of biological, economical and social robustness, taking into account the main uncertainties.

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Management Strategy Evaluation (MSE)

• The Operating Model simulates the real stock and the fishery under certain hypothesis about their dynamics and interactions.

ManagementProcedure (MP)

STOCK&

FISHERY

ASSESSMENTPROCESS

ADVICEDATA

COLLETION

Operating Model

(OM)

• The Management Procedures simulates three main processes:

Data collection: Simulate the sampling of the necessary data to run the assessment

Assessment: Compile the data and obtain an estimated population through an assessment model.

Advice: Apply a predefined HCR to the observed population to obtain the management advice (TAC, TAE, spatio-temporal closures…).

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What can be done in the context of DEEPFISHMAN?..

We can compare, for instance, which of these procedures are the most suitable for the stocks of interest:

TAC based regulation (output regulation): the idea is to determine the quantity extracted from the sea (Ideally) or as second best the quantity landed, in order to achieve a desired target (Biological, economic, social, …).

Effort based regulation (input regulation): the idea is to determine the pressure against the stock(s) in physical terms in order to achieve a desired target (Biological, economic, social,…).

Or once that one procedure is chosen, different strategies can be compared to achieve the possible targets.