BARNSTABLE – The United States sea scallop fishery has been brought back from the brink of collapse over the past 20 years due to good management practices, but the current fishery management plan does not account for longer-term environmental change like ocean warming that could affect the fishery in the future.
Researchers from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, NOAA’s National Marine Fisheries Service and Ocean Conservancy are looking to change that plan.
They have developed a computer program that concurrently simulates ocean conditions, sea scallop population dynamics and economic impacts of the fishery.
The researchers describe the model as a tool intended to empower everyone who is part of the fisheries management process and output from the model will be available on an interactive website.
Users will then be able to compare and contrast the effects of different management, environmental and market scenarios.
The website, which is under design, will be user friendly so users will not have to be computer experts to compare data once it is complete.
The researchers hope the new model will raise more discussion by allowing people to compare the short and long-term merits of different management efforts that could be implemented.
