A number of European fishing fleets have been regulated through a
combination of quota and effort (sea days) controls since 2004. These two
regulation schemes are, however, interrelated, i.e. a given quota limit will
necessarily determine the effort used and vice versa. A bioeconomic feedback
model is presented which takes this causality between effort and harvest
control into account, and switches back and forth between these two
regulation schemes depending on which is the binding rule. The model is
based on biological stock projection, and quotas are set using the Pope
approximation while an economic production function is used to estimate the
harvest when the effort is binding. The economic response of the fleet is
modelled through a dynamic investment/disinvestment module which evaluates
the change in the fleet capacity given the economic outcome of the fishery.
A simple example is presented for the Danish seiners catching cod in the
North Sea. The model has been constructed as part of the 6th framework
project “Operational Evaluation Tools for Fisheries Management Options
(EFIMAS)”.