Bioeconomic Multispecies Analysis of Marine Ecosystems

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The project covers topics that are both of theoretical and applied interest and cover several subprograms within the purview of the program Havet og kysten. We believe there is an urgent need for applied research regarding utilization of marine ecosystems with emphasis on decision modeling of total allowable catches (TACs) in a broad multispecies context. This investigation will focus on strategies for optimal and simultaneous decisions concerning capelin, herring and cod in the Barents Sea, one of the m ost productive ocean areas in the world. The ecosystem is highly dynamic and volatile. The modeling of a top-down and multidimensional bioeconomic decision process may be used to produce economic sound and informational efficient management strategies ens uring long term sustainability. Due to the level of aggregation the resulting feedback policies should be validated by more detailed biological ecosystem models which, by themselves, lack the ability to determine optimal policies. The modeling and integra tion of such a two-stage process need multidisciplinary collaboration and will provide opportunities for novel research of cutting-edge academic quality beyond the Ph.D. level. A successful outcome of the proposed project will develop basic as well as app lied scientific results in the fields of bioeconomics and fishery research, numerical modeling of multidimensional stochastic bioprocesses, and operational research and management science.