Harvest Control Rules of Multispecies Scads (Decapterus spp.) Fishery in Blitar Waters, East Java

Abstract

Scads fishery in Blitar waters is a multispecies fishery applying harvest control rules (HCRs) from conventional single-species approaches which technically, may not be applicable to employ in such mixedspecies data composed from the multispecies fishery. The feedback HCR is an alternative validated harvest control rule that can be applied for a multispecies fishery. The aim of this study was to technically compare the application of the feedback HCR and conventional single species approaches in terms of estimating the future allowable biological catch (ABC). Therefore, in this study, ABC was estimated by applying three HCRs, the feedback HCR, and two conventional HCRs which was based on single-species approaches applying surplus production models, Schaefer Model and Fox model into catch and effort of scads fisheries data series of 2011 – 2020. The results showed that the ABC estimation of the feedback HCR was a half lower than that of both conventional models. It was biologically safer to apply the feedback HCR to set the annual total allowable catch (TAC) than the other two HCRs. The feedback HCR presented an initial step toward sustainably managing multispecies fisheries while dealing with data-limited conditions.