Lab Seminar - Does the economic value of fisheries stock assessments depend on stock status?

Jack Bucker presented preliminary findings from a research project modeling the economic value of environmental monitoring for fisheries management. Fisheries management agencies, such as the US National Marine Fishers Service, spend a large fraction of their budgets collecting and analyzing data to assess the status of harvested populations. This information is used to determine sustainable and productive harvest rates, a critical component of the management process.  However, even in wealthy countries like the United States and the European Union, scientific resources for fisheries assessment are limited, and resource agencies need to prioritize which populations receive regular scientific assessments based on economic and ecological considerations. A better understanding of the factors that determine the value of fisheries assessments can help improve these prioritization decisions, increasing the efficiency and sustainability of fisheries management.