Fisheries Research Articles
Displaying uncertainty in the biological reference points of sharks
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
7-28-2015
Journal Title
Ocean & Coastal Management
ISSN
Print: 0964-5691 Electronic: 1873-524X
Keywords
Uncertainty, Elasmobranchs, Reference points, Stock status determination
Disciplines
Aquaculture and Fisheries | Behavior and Ethology | Environmental Monitoring | Marine Biology | Natural Resource Economics | Natural Resources and Conservation | Natural Resources Management and Policy | Population Biology | Sustainability
Abstract
Variability in life-history traits influences biological reference points (BRP). For data-poor species such as sharks, BRP have commonly been set at arbitrary values with little consideration of life-history variability. The temperate shark fisheries of Western Australia were used as a case study to develop species-specific limit, threshold and target BRP that consider life history uncertainty and population dynamics. Shark species with higher biological productivity had lower biomass BRP and higher fishing mortality BRP (FBRP) than less productive species. The interplay of gear selectivity and variability in life history traits influenced BRP uncertainty, particularly for FBRP. Traditionally, stock status is determined by comparing a stock-performance indicator (SPI) to a BRP point estimate based on a set probability of SPI exceeding the point BRP. We proposed an alternative approach where we considered distributions for both SPI and BRP and compared the proportion of overlap between those distributions. In practice, we consider this an improvement to characterizing both uncertainties and an easier-to-grasp concept than a probability of exceeding a point estimate.
Recommended Citation
Matias Braccini, Elizabeth N. Brooks, Brent Wise, Rory McAuley, Displaying uncertainty in the biological reference points of sharks, Ocean & Coastal Management, Volume 116, 2015, Pages 143-149, ISSN 0964-5691, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ocecoaman.2015.07.014.
