On the dynamic management of marine resources

Abstract

<p>Mismatches in the spatiotemporal variability of resource, resource users and management actions breeds inefficiency in the management of marine resources. To date, the spatiotemporal resolution and extent of fisheries management has been largely dictated by logistical and political constraints, and secondarily by the geographic range of the species or meta-population dynamics. Management units are rarely smaller than 1000 km2 in developed coastal fisheries, and management measures generally occur at resolutions larger than 100 km2. From a temporal perspective, the finest resolution of management measures is at best a month but more generally a year. As such, attempts to manage processes and patterns at sub-10 km, sub-1 month resolution often involve some level of spatiotemporal mismatch. To address the obvious spatiotemporal mismatch between a dynamic ocean and static management, to allow for a comprehensive implementation of ecosystem-based fisheries management, and to minimize inefficiency in our management of marine resources, we must seek to develop more dynamic management measures that allow managers to address scales, processes and patterns occurring under ten kilometers.</p><p>In this dissertation I apply point pattern processes, cumulative distribution functions, receiver operator characteristic curves, simulated annealing tools, regression models and clustering techniques to develop examples of two dynamic management measures and to compare the efficiency of static versus dynamic management measures. I show that autocorrelation analysis can inform the distances and times used in real-time closures based on move-on rules. Further, I identify optimum bottom temperature threshold values to separate individual species within the Northeast Multispecies Fishery from Atlantic cod. Results demonstrate that dynamic spatiotemporal management measures are widely applicable, and more effective and more efficient than static time-area closures. Unexpected trends in some results due to a changing climate indicate possible increasing thermal overlap between Atlantic cod and many other species in the fishery. Implications of scale in fisheries management and the importance of coarse scale (1 - 10km) ecological patterns to fisheries are discussed.</p>