Reference Points for Optimal Yield: A Framework for Assessing Economic, Conservation, and Sociocultural Tradeoffs in Ecosystem-Based Fishery Management

ABSTRACT

We propose a conceptual framework for evaluating fishery management performance using conservation, economic, and sociocultural metrics. We develop a value function that weights outcomes for each measure based on their relative importance to decision makers and show how it can be derived from fundamental economic principles (the latter initially in collaboration with Mark Plummer). This approach allows one to explore how Optimal Yield, as mandated by the Magnuson-Stevens Act, varies with biological, economic, and sociocultural weightings.

KEYWORDS:

• conservation goal
• economic goal
• sociocultural goal
• triple bottom line

Acknowledgments

We thank Phil Levin for inviting us to present at the Plummer Memorial Symposium, Aaron Mamula and Cameron Speir for comments on a previous version, and two anonymous referees for helpful comments on the submitted version of this paper that helped us think about restructuring. The work in Australia that we recently started is in collaboration with Cathy Dichmont (CSIRO) and Rachel Pears (Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority) who identified the TBL as an important unfilled need in the Fisheries Research and Development Corporation call for Expressions of Interest in 2014.

Funding

ND was supported by the CSIRO Career Development Fund.

Notes

1. This was Mark Plummer's insight after reading Richerson et al. (2010).