Economically Optimal Management Strategies for the South Georgia Patagonian Toothfish Fishery

The fishery for Patagonian toothfish around the island of South Georgia in the Southern Ocean is a profitable operation targeting a high-value, slow-growing species. We substituted the complex Bayesian age-structured model currently used for assessments with a Schaefer production model, which performs equally well as an operating model for management strategy evaluation. Our analysis demonstrated that optimum long-term profitability using a discount rate of 2% would be achieved at a biomass of 59% of initial biomass, which is higher than the target biomass of 50% incorporated into the current management strategy, and at a reduction in effort of approximately 19%. A number of potential effort reduction strategies are investigated, several of which would achieve belter conservation objectives and higher future profits from the fishery than those predicted using the current management strategy. Copyright © 2010 MRE Foundation, Inc.