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Empirical management strategies can simplify fisheries management in ICES
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DOI：10.1093/icesjms/fsag129.png)
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Abstract
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Fisheries management strategies are either empirical (model-free) or model-based. The International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES) typically follows a best assessment approach using model-based management strategies for data-rich stocks and empirical approaches only for data-limited stocks. This study presents the case study of Western English Channel plaice, an ICES stock traditionally considered data-limited despite an abundance of data available. A management strategy evaluation was conducted to tune the empirical chr rule (based on a harvest rate approach) and the model-based ICES MSY rule (based on a stock assessment and short-term forecast) with an operating model ensemble. Both methods provided virtually equivalent management performance with high long-term catches, being precautionary, and passed robustness tests. This meant that despite the empirical method being much simpler and relying on fewer data, it did not perform worse and even resulted in a lower depletion risk. Instead, it simplified fisheries management and set the catch biennially, thereby reducing the required scientific effort. This study presents the first comprehensive stock-specific management strategy evaluation for a data-limited ICES stock and concludes that empirical management strategies should be considered for more ICES stocks because they can deliver good management performance, are much simpler to test, apply, and explain, and avoid many of the issues of the best assessment paradigm.
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