Research Services MSY Reference Points

Tender description

The overall aim of the project is to develop and test a range of assessment models and methods to establish MSY reference points (or proxy MSY reference points) across the spectrum of data-limited stocks. There is a requirement for the following research services over a 24 months period between May 2017 and April 2019: Task 1: Stock prioritisation A number of example stocks have been identified above. The final list of stocks will be prioritised using criteria like: economic value of the stock; importance of the species to the ecosystem (key-stone species); sensitivity to the impacts of fishing; available data. Task 2: Data collation (to run in parallel with other tasks) The project relies on existing data sets, however these data need to be collated in a usable form. Most datasets are available from the Marine Institute, or are publicly available, but others may only exist in other European labs/agencies. Task 3: Method and simulation framework development and implementation A number of data-limited methods exist. In order to compare the performance of these methods it would be useful to implement them all in the same framework, e.g. R. New methods may also be developed in the same framework. Task 4: Method performance appraisal Develop set of diagnostics that can be applied across range of models. Also assess the stability of the model, sensitivity to assumptions and bias in the advised catch. Task 5: Reference point comparisons (across candidate methods) Once reference points have been identified, their performance should be evaluated through simple management strategy evaluations. Task 6: Liaison with Marine Institute The service provider is expected to meet on a regular basis with MI staff involved in the project: • Monthly update meetings at the Marine Institute premises in Oranmore Galway Task 7: Linkage with other projects Full details are available in the attached Invitation to Tender