Towards monitoring the world’s fishery resources using viability indices

Abstract

This paper develops an easy to use and cost efficient index for the assessment of stock viability in fisheries management and bioeconomic analysis. The index is predicated on biological and economic theory, and can be applied to different bioeconomic frameworks including different behavioural assumptions. Available time series data for the Canadian Atlantic cod, Danish North Sea cod and Norwegian cod fisheries are then assimilated into the model dynamics in order to estimate the index. To buttress the utility of this index, a jackknife technique is used to provide standard errors of estimation. It is found that for all the three fisheries, the imputed indices are low and consistent with observational data.