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Benchmark Requirements for Recovering Fish Stocks
Author(s) -
Powers Joseph E.
Publication year - 1996
Publication title -
north american journal of fisheries management
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.587
H-Index - 72
eISSN - 1548-8675
pISSN - 0275-5947
DOI - 10.1577/1548-8675(1996)016<0495:brfrfs>2.3.co;2
Subject(s) - stock (firearms) , fishing , fish stock , interim , benchmark (surveying) , fishery , yield (engineering) , recovery rate , resource (disambiguation) , economics , business , environmental science , computer science , biology , engineering , mechanical engineering , history , computer network , chemistry , materials science , archaeology , geodesy , chromatography , metallurgy , geography
Benchmark requirements for recovering fish stocks are examined. Recovery plans for depleted fishery resources should include four components: (1) a threshold measure (or measures) of the overfished state and periodic monitoring of the fishery resource relative to that measure, (2) a recovery period, (3) a recovery trajectory for the interim stock status relative to the overfished state, and (4) transition from a recovery strategy to an “optimal yield” strategy. Implications of ignoring some of these components are explored for a recovering fish stock for which annual quotas chosen by fisheries managers are based on the estimated catch associated with a benchmark fishing mortality rate. In particular, it is shown that a constant fishing mortality rate without an accepted recovery trajectory does not provide for “mid‐course corrections” needed to adjust to differences between projected and realized resource status and in the risk choices of the managers relative to overruns and underruns of annual quotas. Fisheries managers should select from feasible recovery periods, recovery trajectories, and definitions of optimal yield. Biological information should be provided to the managers to define the criteria for when a stock is at risk (overfished) and what options are feasible for the recovery period, trajectory, and optimal yield.