Preventing the collapse of the Baltic cod stock through an ecosystem-based management approach.
Worldwide a number of fish stocks have collapsed because of overfishing and climate-induced ecosystem changes. Developing ecosystem-based fisheries management (EBFM) to prevent these catastrophic events in the future requires ecological models incorporating both internal food-web dynamics and external drivers such as fishing and climate. Using a stochastic food-web model for a large marine ecosystem (i.e., the Baltic Sea) hosting a commercially important cod stock, we were able to reconstruct the history of the stock. Moreover we demonstrate that in hindsight the collapse could only have been avoidable by adapting fishing pressure to environmental conditions and food-web interactions. The modeling approach presented here represents a significant advance for EBFM, the application of which is important for sustainable resource management in the future.
Lindegren
Martin
M
National Institute of Aquatic Resources, Technical University of Denmark, Charlottenlund Castle, DK-2920 Charlottenlund, Denmark.
Möllmann
Christian
C
Nielsen
Anders
A
Stenseth
Nils C
NC
D000818:Animals; D018533:Biomass; D003247:Conservation of Natural Resources / Q000191:economics / Q000379:methods; D017753:Ecosystem; D005398:Fisheries / Q000191:economics / Q000379:methods*; D020387:Food Chain; D048388:Gadiformes / Q000254:growth & development*; D008386:Marine Biology; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D009792:Oceans and Seas; D054712:Salinity
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