Open AccessProbabilistic Approaches to Setting Acceptable Biological Catch and Annual Catch Targets for Multiple Years: Reconciling Methodology with National Standards Guidelines
Author(s) -
Shertzer Kyle W.,
Prager Michael H.,
Williams Erik H.
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
marine and coastal fisheries
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.664
H-Index - 28
ISSN - 1942-5120
DOI - 10.1577/c10-014.1
Subject(s) - overfishing , probabilistic logic , fisheries management , imperfect , fishery , computer science , set (abstract data type) , operations research , environmental resource management , fish <actinopterygii> , fishing , environmental science , engineering , biology , linguistics , philosophy , artificial intelligence , programming language
In U.S. federal fishery management, acceptable biological catch (ABC) is set below (or equal to) the overfishing limit to account for scientific uncertainty, and annual catch targets (ACTs) are set below (or equal to) the ABC to account for implementation uncertainty (i.e., imperfect management control). In previous papers, we discussed probabilistic approaches to setting target and limit reference points for fishery management. Here, we explain how those approaches can be adapted to provide ABCs and ACTs over multiple years and otherwise made consist with recent revisions to the National Standards Guidelines, a part of the U.S. Code of Federal Regulations that describes implementation of the Magnuson‐Stevens Reauthorization Act. Although described in terms of U.S. fishery management, our methods are sufficiently general for use by researchers in U.S. state agencies or elsewhere in the world. We demonstrate them via an example application to vermilion snapper Rhomboplites aurorubens in U.S. Atlantic waters.