Models of alternative management policies for marine ecosystems

We are employing comparative approaches based on a common modeling framework developed for each of five large marine ecosystems in the North Pacific Ocean. Each of these ecosystems has served as the focus of controversy over the ecological consequences of fishery management practices, protection for threatened or endangered species, and the relative importance of large-scale environmental variability. Each of these ecosystems has been the focus of model development effort using the common framework of an Ecopath/Ecosim approach. We are using these five models as the basis for evaluating policy effects on ecosystem structure, clarifying the tradeoffs in fishery and conservation goals, and designing robust management strategies. We have also created novel ways of visualizing complex ecosystem models, as a way to make them more accessible to policy makers. Our efforts are supported by the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis.