Uncertainty and Fisheries Management

Fisheries management provides an important example of the application of theoretical ideas to practical biological problems. The interest of mathematicians in the subject goes back at least as far as the fundamental work of Volterra (1928), and there is now a voluminous literature. In spite of this long history, certain crucial aspects of the problem have not been understood as well as they might. These involve statistical issues and the relationship between models and data. Two of these ideas can be stated in the form of paradoxes: 1.Management for sustained yield cannot be optimal.2.Effective management models cannot be realistic.