Decision support system for fisheries management

This paper presents a decision support system that is oriented toward fisheries policy and management decisions. The important current issues involve the development of an optimal harvesting plan for the fishing industry. A simulation optimization has been built to assist authorities in scheduling for a fleet of hundreds of vessels in terms of time and location of fishing, as well as amount and target species to be fished. Marine fisheries are highly complex and stochastic. A simulation model, therefore, is required. Simulation-based optimization utilizes the simulation model in obtaining the objective function values of a particular fishing schedule. A genetic algorithm is used as the optimization routine to determine the optimal fishing schedule, subject to fleet capacity and conservation requirements. The decision support system is then applied to the real situation in the Northeastern U.S.