What are the challenges of Maximum Sustainable Yield (MSY) and the relevance of the Maximum Average Yield (MAY).
Is MSY a reliable tool for sustainable fisheries.
If we agree that the definition that maximum sustainable yield is the largest long-term average catch or yield that can be taken from a stock under prevailing ecological and environmental conditions, then the magnitude of MSY will fluctuate due to:
According to Annala (1993 ), MAY is defined as the maximum average catch that arises from applying a constant level of fishing mortality. In practice, constant F is often hard to implement and adequate data may not be available to estimate MAY.
Many management organizations, including the U.S. Fisheries Management Councils, generally accept that MSY is useful within a framework of targets and limits, rather than as a constant yield to be achieved in perpetuity. In this case fishing mortality at MSY (FMSY) may be the maximum fishing mortality allowed (values of F > FMSY indicate overfishing), while the corresponding biomass (BMSY) is the minimum rebuilding target for overfished stocks. The total allowable catch for the fishery is then a level that allows recovery to a management target (e.g. BMSY) within a specified time, with a certain probability (e.g. >50%) of success.
For stocks that are not overfished nor experiencing overfishing, the U.S. domestic target is Optimal Yield (OY) where OY is defined on the basis of the maximum sustainable yield from the fishery, as REDUCED by any relevant economic, social, or ecological factors.
Hope this helps.
Shannon
For literature on the subject of MSY I'd also recommend starting with this classic paper:
Larkin, P.A., 1977. An Epitaph for the Concept of Maximum Sustained Yield. Transactions of the American Fisheries Society, 106(1), pp.1–11.
It is impossible to know the true MSY if the stock is not overexploited, therefore the MSY and related parameters are as they appear now (i.e. at actual level of effort).“You cannot determine the potential yield from a fish stock without overexploiting it” (Hilborn & Walters, 1992).
See:
Hilborn , R. & C.J. Walters . 1992. Quantitative Fisheries Stock Assessment: choice, dynamics and uncertainty. Chapman and Hall, Inc. New York. ISBN 0412022710.
One of many examples that you can see is:
Leonardo Cannizzaro and Sergio Vitale. 2014. Life cycle traits and stock assessment of Pegusa impar (Bennett, 1831) in the shallow coastal waters of Southwest Sicily. ACTA ADRIAT., 55(1): 85 - 100. ISSN: 0001-5113
I have just answered to a related thread on the MSY topic, so also to you I suggest to look for information from the MYFISH project, that has been working over the last four years on defining and quantifying MSY in a complex and variable environment, and identifying trade-offs. You will have a lot of up-to-date insights on this as well as on the issues that this creates for designing MSY-based management, the closing symposium was last week (end of October 2015) and most presentations are online. BR, Clara
Could you tell me about how we can know MSY using Thompson and bell yield stock through FisatIi?
I really need it. Please
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