Can supercomputer model output be used routinely in fisheries management and conservation biology: - A vision of what's possible-

Abstract

Current physical and biological oceanographic models have progressed in the last five years with satellite observations, high-performance computing, and assimilation methods. These recent high-resolution models are now accurate enough to provide information that could be very useful for fisheries management and conservation biology. Unfortunately, because model output is very large and complex, users struggle to use this information effectively for managing fisheries and forecasting fish abundance. Animations of model output enable users to better understand and interpret huge data sets. I created a web interface (http://moray.ml.duke.edu/projects/PacClimVar/) to manipulate an animation of sea surface temperatures from 1993 to 2004. Data come from the NASA project, “Impact of ocean variability on ocean circulation, marine ecosystems, and living resources.” With this interface, managers and scientists can easily visualize physical oceanographic variability, and adapt fishing effort to ocean conditions.