Comparing alternative harvest strategies to address robustness to recruitment variability and uncertainty: implications for Alaska sablefish tested with management strategy evaluation

Details

• Journal Title:
  Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
• Personal Author:
  Zahner, Joshua A. ; Goethel, Daniel R. ; Cunningham, Curry J. ; Cheng, Matthew L.H. ; Williams, Benjamin C. ; Kapur, Maia S. ; Lunsford, Chris
• NOAA Program & Office:
  NMFS (National Marine Fisheries Service) ; AFSC (Alaska Fisheries Science Center)
• Description:
  Developing robust fisheries management strategies for exploited fish stocks is imperative amid rapid ecosystem changes. In Alaska, sablefish (Anoplopoma fimbria) have recently experienced several large recruitment events, resulting in rapid population growth and a concomitant increase in catch of small, low value fish. Current management may not ensure long-term economic stability nor maintain the age structure diversity necessary for population resilience. Using a management strategy evaluation (MSE) framework, we assessed alternative management strategies under random, regime-like, and recruitment-failure scenarios. Strategies that substantially reduced fishing mortality improved stock size and age diversity. Catch stability constraint strategies provided minimal long-term benefits and increased risk during recruitment collapses, although they slightly accelerated population recovery times. Harvest caps maintained higher population sizes, promoted moderate, consistent catches, and modestly expanded population age structure. However, no strategy prevented population declines under prolonged recruitment failure. Results underscore the importance of refining harvest control rules to better balance catch and population stability.
• Source:
  Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences, 82, 1-17
• DOI:
  https://doi.org/10.1139/cjfas-2025-0115
• ISSN:
  0706-652X ; 1205-7533
• Format:
  pdf
• Publisher:
  Canadian Science Publishing
• Document Type:
  Journal Article
• License:
  https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
• Rights Information:
  CC BY
• Compliance:
  Submitted
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:b7dc0a683e0500db32f58c7410a76dc320ba58e29b3a1e043908da10e54002e4417f79bf0d7aba91dbf703986388792e08e55847763c0d0db07f34a77112dfd0
• Download URL:
  https://repository.library.noaa.gov/view/noaa/72175/noaa_72175_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 2.35 MB ]