Generic properties of harvest control rules: what works and what doesn?

This project aims on reviewing, comparing and contrasting different fisheries management regimes in order to evaluate their effectiveness to all stakeholders in the target fishery. Special consideration will be given towards the biological, economical and social implications of the management regimes. An objective and varying perspective of fisheries management will be gained throughout the span of this project in attempt to draw conclusions from the past and apply them to the future. The idea underlyin g the present proposal is that many of the properties of a harvest control rule are of generic nature, and can be studied as such, without linking them to a specific stock. Many inferences drawn from simulation studies could probably be inferred, at least in quantitative terms, with a good enough insight in the generic properties of the harvest control rule under consideration. In summary, the core of this study of generic properties of harvest control rules will be to explore performance measures (leve l and variation of interest parameters, as well as risks) in the space spanned by harvest control rule type parameters and parameters expressing essential biological properties, to find out which of these matter, and how.