Dr. Allan Hicks1
1NWFSC
October 27, 2015 9:00 (PST): FSH 203
A management strategy evaluation for Pacific Hake: the past and future
Management strategy evaluation (MSE) is a tool that can be used to investigate data collection, assessment assumptions, and harvest rules for a fishery. A condition of the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) certification for the Pacific Hake (Merluccius productus) fishery was to use MSE to investigate the harvest rule defined by an International Agreement between the U.S. and Canada. This started a more expansive MSE in 2012 for the Pacific Hake fishery that attempted to define fishery and management objectives as well as investigate data collection, the assessment model, and the harvest rule. This process has been a learning experience with incremental changes made along the way. I will describe this learning process along with an explanation of how the closed-loop simulation, a part of the larger MSE process, was implemented. Some results of our analysis and how they have influenced the assessment and management of Pacific Hake will be presented, followed by a vision of how this MSE may continue to evolve in the future.