"Heures" a bio-economic model for Mediterranean fisheries, towards an approach for the evaluation of management strategies

Abstract

[EN] The bio-economic model “Heures” is a first attempt to develop a simulation procedure to understand the Northwestern Mediterranean fisheries, to evaluate management strategies and to analyze the feasibility of implementing an adaptative management. The model is built on the interaction among three boxes simulating the dynamics of each of the basic actors of a fishery: the stock, the market and the fishermen. A fourth actor, the manager, imposes or modifies the rules, or, in terms of the model, modifies some particular parameters. Thus, the model allows us to simulate and evaluate the mid-term biologic and economic effects of particular management measures. The bio-economic nature of the model is given by the interaction among the three boxes, by the market simulation and, particularly, by the fishermen behaviour. This last element confers to the model its Mediterranean “selfregulated” character. The fishermen allocate their investments to maximize fishing mortality but, having a legal effort limit, they invest in maintenance and technology in order to increase the catchability, which, as a consequence. will be function of the invested capital

[ES] El modelo bioeconómico "Heures" constituye un primer intento de mecanismo de simulación capaz de servir de base para comprender el funcionamiento del sistema pesquero del Mediterráneoo occidental, evaluar medidas de gestión, y analizar las posibilidades de la puesta en marcha de una gestión adaptativa. Esencialmente el modelo consiste en la interacción de tres compartimentos, o cajas, que simulan el comportamiento de cada uno de los agentes que intervienen en la pesquería: el recurso explotado, el mercado y el pescador. Hay un cuarto agente, el gestor, que interviene estableciendo y modificando regulaciones, lo que equivale, en términos del modelo, a modificar ciertos parámetros. De esta forma, el modelo permite simular y evaluar los efectos biológicoa y económicos, a medio plazo, de determinadas acciones de gestión