Planning in Fisheries-Related Systems

Abstract

In this chapter, models for decision support in fisheries related systems are presented involving problems with many varied and often conflicting criteria. The fisheries systems problems and decision support opportunities include: (i) spatial-temporal decisions on the exploitation and use of marine zones defined by geographic information systems (GIS) to evaluate diverse activities such as traditional fisheries, aquaculture, and recreation; (ii) longer-term strategic evaluation of fisheries policy and planning exercises; (iii) operational assessment of stock status leading to commercial exploitation regulations, and (iv) deciding on the scientific activities for fisheries science research as a function of prespecified mandates. In each of these cases, the commercial fishery and coastal zone systems require the consideration of multiple criteria characterised by the conflicting issues of sustaining and conserving the marine ecosystem while carrying out exploitation on marine species for commercial and socioeconomic supporting enhancements. This chapter presents structured analysis of multiple criteria fisheries problems using pairwise comparative methodology for evaluating and ranking alternative policies in the fisheries system. Comparisons are developed through the integration of feedback from key decision-making participants in the fisheries system governance framework. The multicriteria decision support case results illustrate the application of the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) methodology embedded in fisheries software models developed for each application arising from Canadian fisheries. The software models allow policy analysts to explore and compare alternative policies and their impacts while providing a logical, non-dominated and ranked decision evaluation procedure to support governance decision makers in their operational and strategic fisheries negotiations.