Don't ask don't tell: when science answers unwelcome questions

Poster presentado a la ICES Annual Science Conference celebrada entre el 11 y el 14 de septiembre de 2023 en Bilbao.

Management strategy evaluation (MSE) generally involves defining a decision problem, specifying objectives, and simulating the managed system to help evaluate uncertainties, risks, and trade-offs of management alternatives. Stakeholders' involvement is a core component of MSE to design pragmatic and applicable management strategies that are robust to uncertainty and balance ecological, economic and social objectives. Knowledge advances and computational capabilities allow fisheries scientists to generate evidence practically and transparently. Transparency is a cornerstone fisheries management principle with inherent paradoxes (Wilson, 2009). For instance, assessment models can be used to build political options into the models as alternatives. Hence, scientists can deliver advice that makes explicit the trade-offs and consequences of policy objectives. Under this perspective, the Math4Fish project involves natural and social scientists , managers (Spanish General Secretariat for Fisheries) and representatives of the fishing sector to jointly define management strategies to be simulated in MSE environments for the European hake, Merluccius merluccius (Linnaeus, 1758), southern stock in the Iberian Peninsula (International Council for the Exploration of the Sea divisions 8c9a). Workshops were held to introduce the fishing sector and managers mathematical modelling tools to evaluate management strategies for hake, as well as to propose information to explore/simulate different scenarios. During our experience, the allocation of quotas based on selectivity criteria between fishing gears has emerged as a scenario worth exploring. The redistribution of resources between the different fleet segments is a sensitive issue that causes tensions. Scientifically, quota redistribution simulations can be carried out, and the results analysed and compared with the current situation, highlighting the scope and limitations of the analysis. This would benefit a structured dialogue on policy options and reinforce transparency. However, spotlighting trade-offs is not always well received by policy makers and the fishing sector. Efforts to engage the public and lessons learned will be discussed and detailed.

This study is a contribution of the proyect financed by the European Union-Next Generation EU. Component 3. Investment 7. Agreement between the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries, and Food and the State Agency Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) M.P.- through the Spanish Institute of Oceanography to promote fisheries research as a basis for sustainable fisheries management. Eje 6, Math4Fish: New tools for mathematical modeling in fisheries scientific advice Spain.