title: A bio-economic analysis of harvest control rules for the Northeast Arctic cod fishery.
abstract: Harvest control rules (HCRs) have been implemented for many fisheries worldwide. However, in most instances, those HCRs are not based on the explicit feedbacks between stock properties and economic considerations. This paper develops a bio-economic model that evaluates the HCR adopted in 2004 by the Joint Norwegian-Russian Fishery Commission to manage the world's largest cod stock, Northeast Arctic cod (NEA). The model considered here is biologically and economically detailed, and is the first to compare the performance of the stock's current HCR with that of alternative HCRs derived with optimality criteria. In particular, HCRs are optimized for economic objectives including fleet profits, economic welfare, and total yield and the emerging properties are analyzed. The performance of these optimal HCRs was compared with the currently used HCR. This paper show that the current HCR does in fact comes very close to maximizing profits. Furthermore, the results reveal that the HCR that maximizes profits is the most precautionary one among the considered HCRs. Finally, the HCR that maximizes yield leads to un-precautionary low levels of biomass. In these ways, the implementation of the HCR for NEA cod can be viewed as a success story that may provide valuable lessons for other fisheries.
authors.affiliation: Centre for Ecological and Evolutionary Synthesis (CEES), Department of Biology, University of Oslo, P.O. Box 1066 Blindern, N-0316 Oslo, Norway.
authors.forename: Anne Maria
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Eikeset
authors.affiliation: Centre for Ecological and Evolutionary Synthesis (CEES), Department of Biology, University of Oslo, P.O. Box 1066 Blindern, N-0316 Oslo, Norway.
authors.forename: Andries P
authors.initials: AP
authors.lastname: Richter
authors.affiliation: Institute of Marine Research, P.O. Box 1870 Nordnes, N-5817 Bergen, Norway.
authors.forename: Dorothy J
authors.initials: DJ
authors.lastname: Dankel
authors.affiliation: Aquatic Research and Development Section, Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources, 2140 East Bank Drive, Peterborough, Ontario, Canada K9J 7B8.
authors.forename: Erin S
authors.initials: ES
authors.lastname: Dunlop
authors.affiliation: Institute of Marine Research, P.O. Box 1870 Nordnes, N-5817 Bergen, Norway ; Department of Biology, University of Bergen, Box 7803, N-5020 Bergen, Norway ; Evolution and Ecology Program, International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis, A-2361 Laxenburg, Austria.
authors.forename: Mikko
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Heino
authors.affiliation: Evolution and Ecology Program, International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis, A-2361 Laxenburg, Austria.
authors.forename: Ulf
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Dieckmann
authors.affiliation: Centre for Ecological and Evolutionary Synthesis (CEES), Department of Biology, University of Oslo, P.O. Box 1066 Blindern, N-0316 Oslo, Norway.
authors.forename: Nils Chr
authors.initials: NC
authors.lastname: Stenseth
keywords: Feedback control; Fisheries; Harvest control rule; Optimal management; Profit; Spawning stock biomass