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ICES Journal of Marine Science: Journal du Conseil 2005 62(3):558-568; doi:10.1016/j.icesjms.2004.12.005
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© 2005 International Council for the Exploration of the Sea

Possible ecosystem impacts of applying MSY policies from single-species assessment

Carl J. Waltersa,*, Villy Christensena, Steven J. Martella and James F. Kitchellb

a Fisheries Centre, University of British Columbia Vancouver, British Columbia V6T1Z4, Canada
b Center for Limnology, University of Wisconsin Madison, WI 53706, USA

*Correspondence to C. J. Walters: tel: +1 604 8226320; fax: +1 604 8228934. e-mail: c.walters{at}fisheries.ubc.ca.

Ecosim models have been fitted to time-series data for a wide variety of ecosystems for which there are long-term data that confirm the models' ability to reproduce past responses of many species to harvesting. We subject these model ecosystems to a variety of harvest policies, including options based on harvesting each species at its maximum sustainable yield (MSY) fishing rate. We show that widespread application of single-species MSY policies would in general cause severe deterioration in ecosystem structure, in particular the loss of top predator species. This supports the long-established practice in fisheries management of protecting at least some smaller "forage" species specifically for their value in supporting larger piscivores.

Keywords: Ecosim, ecosystem models, MSY, multispecies production, overharvesting

Received 1 April 2004; accepted 13 September 2004.


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