PROCEAN: A PRODUCTION CATCH / EFFORT ANALYSIS FRAMEWORK TO ESTIMATE CATCHABILITY TRENDS AND FISHERY DYNAMICS IN A BAYESIAN CONTEXT.

The model PROCEAN (PROduction Catch-Effort Analysis) is a bayesian statistical catch/effort analysis framework based on a generalized production model. The use of such a production model could be usefull in IOTC where reliable size data are missing for stock assessment. The aim of this paper is to present the PROCEAN model. PROCEAN is a multi-fleet non equilibrium generalized production model which includes process error for both catchability time series and carrying capacity of the stock. PROCEAN assumes that fluctuations of the stock surface may only have consequences on fleets catchability and on the stock carrying capacity. Our objective is not to propose a very realistic representation of the fishery. We propose a tool to extract the maximum amount of information from the data set by structuring it given a simple and well established theoretical model. Then, modeling is used here as a mean to explore data sets according to various hypothesis