Spatial Structure: Theory, estimation and application in stock assessment models

Abstract

All fish populations and fisheries exhibit spatial structure, but accounting for the spatial patterns is commonly ignored in most stock assessments. The Center for the Advancement of Population Assessment Methodology (CAPAM) hosted a workshop on “Spatial Stock Assessment Models” (La Jolla, CA, USA; October 1-5, 2018), and this special volume includes twelve papers on various aspects of spatial stock assessments, including stock identification, development and application of spatially-structured models, simulation studies, and management implications. The workshop and these contributions demonstrate that stock assessments require adequate representation of spatial scope and structure, and tag-integrated models generally perform best, but spatially-structured stock assessments pose several challenges, and remain rarely applied as the scientific basis for fishery management.