1 FISHERY MANAGEMENT WHEN BIOLOGICAL AND ECONOMIC DISTURBANCES ARE CORRELATED.

Economists studying the management of fisheries have universally assumed disturbances affecting harvest costs are unrelated to disturbances affecting biological growth. This paper gives examples of commercially valuable species that are impacted reproductively and behaviorally by a single environmental variable (e.g., temperature), leading to correlated disturbances in current marginal harvest costs and future biological growth. A general analytical model examines the importance of considering correlated disturbances when choosing optimal escapement targets, and shows how the presence of correlation affects the value of waiting for information on harvest costs. These results give insight as to the appropriate use of ―self-correcting ‖ mechanisms for controlling harvest, such as landing fees, versus hard targets, and provide a framework for proactive management of fisheries in the face of large-scale marine disturbances that can affect both the biological growth and behavior of commercially valuable species