Tidier Fisheries Management Requires a New MOP (Management-oriented Paradigm)

Our experience of fisheries management is one of regular disappointments. As well as occasional spectacular collapses, fisheries have often had to make severe and painful adjustments in the face of overexploitation and overinvestment. The failures of fisheries management may result from failing to consider the management of fisheries as a whole system. A management-oriented paradigm (MOP) crosses the boundaries of traditional fisheries scientific, economic and policy research. It involves formulating management objectives that are measurable, specifying sets of decision rules, and specifying the data and methods to be used, all in such a way that the properties of the resultant system can be prospectively evaluated. The prospective evaluation of a management system involves the use of computer simulations and the development of performance measures that demonstrate the likely success of a management system in meeting its objectives.