Resources

The workbook contains all the worksheets needed to characterize your fishery and the data you have available before getting started on the eleven-step FISHE assessment process. It also contains many of the materials needed to complete the methods at each step.

Southern red snapper, Lutjanus purpureus, and yellowedge grouper, Epinephelus flavolimbatus, are the main species exploited by handliners and longliners of the Venezuelan medium range snapper–grouper fleet in the southeastern Caribbean. Catch and effort data for the period 1981–2000 are used to assess both species by means of a Schaefer biomass dynamic model.

Novel management strategies to overcome data limitations and account for spatial variability are needed. With the ever-increasing implementation of no-take marine protected areas (MPAs), there is great potential for improving decision making in management through comparisons of fished populations with populations in MPAs at spatially explicit scales. We developed a management strategy that uses a combination of data-based indicators sampled inside and outside of MPAs as well as model-based reference points for data-poor, sedentary nearshore species.

The spawning potential ratio (SPR) is a well-established biological reference point, and estimates of SPR could be used to inform management decisions for data-poor fisheries. Simulations were used to investigate the utility of the length-based model (LB-SPR) developed in Hordyk et al. (2015). Some explorations of the life history ratios describe length composition, spawning-per-recruit, and the spawning potential ratio (ICES Journal of Marine Science, 72: 204–216) to estimate the SPR of a stock directly from the size composition of the catch. This was done by (i) testing some of the main assumptions of the LB-SPR model, including recruitment variability and dome-shaped selectivity, (ii) examining the sensitivity of the model to error in the input parameters, and (iii) completing an initial empirical test for the LB-SPR model by applying it to data from a well-studied species.

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.

Here, we present a new method for estimating MSY from catch data, resilience of the respective species, and simple assumptions about relative stock sizes at the first and final year of the catch data time series. We compare our results with 146 MSY estimates derived from full stock assessments and find excellent agreement. We present principles for fisheries management of data-poor stocks, based only on information about catches and MSY.

This extension of length-only approaches to account for time-varying recruitment and fishing mortality. This Length-based Integrated Mixed Effects (LIME) method at a minimum requires a single year of length data and basic biological information but can fit to multiple years of length data, catch, and an abundance index if available. We use simulation testing to demonstrate that LIME can estimate how much fishing has reduced spawning output in the most recent year across a variety of scenarios for recruitment and fishing mortality. LIME improves data-limited fisheries stock assessments by its flexibility to incorporate additional years or types of data if available and obviates the need for equilibrium assumptions.

Designed with our partners at Rare and the Sustainable Fisheries Group at UCSB to meet the needs of the Fish Forever project, this mini-toolkit walks users through the steps involved in adaptive fisheries management. The steps of this toolkit, which move through data analysis, selection and evaluation of performance indicators, selection of management measures, and iterative adjustment of management to achieve pre-defined goals, is similar to the 11 Step FISHE process. However, this toolkit is much more strongly focused on the setting and revising of management measures, and less on the selection and application of appropriate assessment methods. It can be seen as parallel to, and supportive of, the last six steps of FISHE.

This white paper details a step-by-step method for conducting adaptive management in data-limited fisheries. The report provides guidance on employing a participatory process to define goals, identity and assess systems indicators, set reference points and interpret results. The processes outlined in the report should be repeated each year to determine the status of the fishery and inform appropriate management actions.

Fisheries managers seek to maintain sustainable fisheries production, but successful management often requires the pursuit of multiple biological, ecological, and socioeconomic objectives simultaneously. Fisheries managers must choose among a broad range of harvest control methods (HCMs) to meet management objectives. This review identifies strengths and weaknesses of eight HCMs and evaluates their ability to meet a multitude of common biological, ecological, and socioeconomic management objectives such as protecting spawning biomass, reducing bycatch, and sustaining fishers’ profit. Evidence suggests that individual HCMs often fail to meet management objectives and may unintentionally create incentives to race to fish, discard catch and overcapitalize fishing operations. These limitations can be overcome by strategically combining multiple controls or incorporating rights-based and spatial management.