Project title: Mathematical Models of Fish Populations in Marine Reserves

Fishery management typically involves many sources of uncertainty. Fish populations respond to variable events in nature, often unknown to fishery managers. The available data usually contain high levels of measurement error. Marine reserves offer a potential management tool for dealing with these uncertainties. Protected populations in areas closed to all fishing could act as buffers that mitigate excessive fishing elsewhere. Furthermore, reserves could help maintain healthy ecosystems with natural levels of species and habitat diversity. As the world population grows, pressure increases to harvest unsustainable quantities of our marine resources. The definition of a “safe ” harvest level often becomes controversial. Marine reserves offer an alternative strategy that could supplement or even replace the attempt to define safe harvest limits. In this project we use mathematical models to examine management strategies associated with fully protected marine reserves. We consider two linked populations in adjacent areas, where one is exposed to fishing and the other is not. Our models allow us to explore the influence of a reserve on the levels of stock biomass and catch. Associated software would make it easy for students and researchers to investigate potential options for effective harvest management in the context of protected marine populations. Potential impacts of the researc