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Expert Systems with Applications

Expert Systems with Applications 36 (2009) 29712978 www.elsevier.com/locate/eswa

A decision support system for sheries management using operations research and systems science approach
Farhad Azadivar b,*, Tu Truong a, Yue Jiao a
School for Marine Sciences and Technology, University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, 706 South Rodney French Boulevard, New Bedford, MA 02744-1221, USA b Mechanical Engineering Department, University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, 285 Old Westport, North Dartmouth, MA 02747-2300, USA
a

Abstract In this paper, we present a general framework, using a systems science approach, for developing a decision support system (DSS) for sheries management. Decision support systems are quantitative tools for managers to evaluate outcomes of their policies prior to implementation. Our shery model considers multiple stocks and sheries simultaneously in balancing catch among targeted and protected sh abundances. Since in the Northeastern US multispecies shery the distribution of abundance, catch-per-unit-eort and bycatch vary geographically, we focus on a spatial management approach to address their spatial variability. The core component of this DSS applies operations research techniques of simulation and optimization to determine the optimal inter-annual and intra-annual shing plans in terms of shing eorts in each sub-area and the time period. The result is the recommended amount to catch from each sh species at each sub-area at any time period so that while management objectives for sustainability of sh stocks are satised, the value of landings is maximized. The graphical user interface of the proposed DSS helps users to dene inputs, to set constraints and sub-area boundaries, and to visualize the outcomes. 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Decision support system; Simulation; Optimization; Multispecies; Spatial management

1. Introduction The ocean provides a substantial resource that could yield considerable benets through sheries management. The major concern in managing the sheries issue is to take advantage of this huge resource without damaging the supply in the long run. As a result the government sets certain rules and regulations on shing vessels in terms of the amount and the species of the sh they could catch in any given day and in any given area. Laying out these decisions and implementing them forces the shery management organization to make some decisions that they may not be sure themselves if they could result desirable solutions. In practice, these decisions force shery vessels to sh a specied amount of each species at any given time. Such
*

Corresponding author. Tel.: +1 508 999 8549; fax: +1 508 999 8881. E-mail address: fazadivar@umassd.edu (F. Azadivar).

decisions are dicult due to the complexities associated with multiple management objectives and multiple alternatives under considerations (Mardle, Pascoe, & Tamiz, 2000). To aid the decision making process, managers need tools to formalize these complexities into a common framework consisting of relationships among management measures, sources of uncertainty, and possible outcomes of actions (Peterson & Evans, 2003). In case of multi-species shery this problem is even more complex due to the fact that the spatial factors must be explicitly incorporated into the decision making process (Robinson & Frid, 2001). There are several important management policy issues that cannot be evaluated without spatial analysis and modeling. Examples of these issues include determination of the location and size of marine protected areas, and judgment on whether the shing eort displaced to protect the reserves may end up doing more harm elsewhere (Walter & Martell, 2004).

0957-4174/$ - see front matter 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.eswa.2008.01.080

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Given the complexity of the decision making environment, we present a decision support system (DSS) for sheries management using a systems science and operations research approach. A DSS is a functionally integrated and automated computer system which allows managers to examine the expected eects of dierent management strategies, incorporate multiple objectives and concerns of stakeholders, determine the relative inuence of various sources of uncertainty, and estimate the marginal value of collecting additional data (Rothschild, Ault, & Smith, 1996). A DSS provides a framework for interdisciplinary research and management teams to cooperate in creating the most eective management strategies. The system we present here focuses on applying a specially designed DSS applicable to the Northeastern US multispecies shery. By solving the systems models the proposed DSS determines the optimal shing plans, in terms of the amount of sh to be caught from each species at each sub-area and at each time period, utilizing the data provided by the management. The management is provided by a user friendly interface screen to enter the required data to the DSS taking into account the available objectives and instruments as well as parameters that represent biological, technological, and economical conditions of the sheries. To provide the best management advice the DSS integrates multiple sources of information, including stock status, spatial distribution, catch per unit eort (CPUE), and environmental and economic factors collected from shery independent research surveys as well as shery dependent observations. The proposed system complements the traditional sheries theories by utilizing knowledge from elds of com-

puter simulation modeling and operations research. The DSS is equipped with an area-management-assisting feature using Geographic Information System (GIS) that allows considering spatially explicit processes such as heterogeneous distribution of sh stocks, shing eort, and catch per unit eort. A suite of tools has been developed by adopting operations research methodologies of linear programming and simulation-based optimization. The rest of the paper is organized as follows. First, the systems approach extracted from available shery and operations research theory is presented and integrated for the purpose of solving shery optimization problem. Description of the methods will include the presentation of a visualization tools for area management. Optimization and operations research tools employed for nding the solutions are explained in the section that follows the description section. The paper is concluded with an illustrative example and conclusions. 2. Systems approach An eective shing management system should link together three fundamental phases of a given activity; (i) system description which includes the collection and processing of data; (ii) systems analysis which provides parameter estimates from data through a well structured format; and (iii) systems optimization-implementation which uses the estimated parameters to provide the means for enactment of shing policy designed to achieve optimal harvest levels. Through this lens of systems approach, shery management should consist of 11 components (Fig. 1): (1) the natural sheries complex, (2) sampling design and

1
Actual Temporal and Spatial Dynamics of N Fisheries Stocks

3
Data Processing

4
Data Management

5
Biological, Physical and Fisheries Characteristics

2
Sampling Methodologies and Statistical Designs

6
Demographics

7
System Identification and Structure Analysis

11
Implementation

10
Optimization and Decision Analysis

8
Perceived Fishery

9
Meta-system

Fig. 1. Schematic diagram showing the elements components of the conceptual shery management system.

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1
Actual Temporal and Spatial Dynamics of N Fisheries Stocks

2
Sampling Methodologies and Statistical Designs

11
Implementation

10
Optimization and Decision Analysis

8
Perceived Fishery

Fig. 2. System optimization-implementation complex of shery management systems.

data collection, (3) data processing, (4) data management, (5) a descriptive overview of the biological, physical and sh characteristics (6) demography that species models of reproduction, growth, survivorship, age-based, lengthbased and sex specic abundance, (7) systems identication and principal component analysis, (8) perception of the natural shery complex, (9) a meta-system description (i.e., synthesis of better understood stocks), (10) optimization and decision analysis, and (11) implementation of management policies (Rothschild et al., 1996). The systems optimization-implementation complex, which is the main subject of study in this paper, is formed from components 10 and 11, together with components 1, 2

and 8 (Fig. 2). This complex visualizes the whole shery system with respect to various sets of management scenarios, optimizes the system subject to various constraints, and provides a set of policy implementation procedures for realization of management objectives. Component 1 provides a complete description of all biological, physical, shing and anthropogenic processes and perturbations that aect the targeted stocks. The comprehensive understanding of the temporal and spatial dynamics of commercially viable stock in an ecosystem would help shery managers in decision making. Fisheries data sampling component (i.e. component 2) gathers information from shery-dependent and shery independent

Fig. 3. The Graphical User Interface (GUI) allows visualizing spatial distribution of shing eort, as well as CPUE, bycatch, discard and stock status at a specied period.

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sources. Fishery dependent sampling involves the collection of data from the commercial shing industry. This data can be collected in either a passive fashion in which reports on catch and eort are recorded at landing ports or active way by sending out specialized personnel on shing vessels. The perceived shery component (i.e. component 8) represents the best knowledge of natural shery system as depicted by component 1. Component 10 provides the pathway to system optimization through a large array of mathematical programming and decision analytic techniques to determine various optimality criteria such as harvest or economic revenue. Decision analysis renes the optimization with respect to various time-dependent objectives, sources of risk, and satisfaction with system outcomes. Jointly, the elements of this component address specic issues such as shing mortality rate, shing eort, area closures, net size, bycatch restrictions, etc. From the specic optimal outcomes provided by component 10, component 11 formulates the policy design to achieve all objectives simultaneously while overlaying the proper level of enforcement and compliance necessary to reach those management goals. 2.1. A visualization tool for area management Visualization is a fundamental feature for decision support, especially in sheries management. Our proposed DSS utilizes Geographical Information System (GIS) func-

tions in processing spatial data from multiple survey sources (Fig. 3). Managers are able to view graphical presentations of sh stock distribution, shing eort, catch, bycatch, discard by species, catch per unit eort (CPUE), and other information such as sediment, habitat, and environmental data that are all stored in the database of the DSS. High resolution geo-referenced and temporally referenced data are recorded for each trip and tows during trips as well as detailed catch and discard data by species. Area management has been implemented in the Northeastern US region where geographically shing ground is highly heterogeneous. A large portion of shing ground has been closed for more than 10 years and several areas are closed seasonally. There are also special access programs areas in which vessels are allowed to target a particular healthy stock in a certain period of time. Some of these provisions are: the yellowtail ounder SAP, the hook gear haddock SAP, and the Eastern US/Canada haddock SAP pilot programs. SAPs can overlap closed and open areas. Recently, several essential sh habitat areas have been suggested for permanent closure (New England Fishery Management Council, 2005). The DSS provides a drawing tool for dening sub-areas in shing grounds such as open areas, closed areas, Special Access Programs and Essential Fish Habitat protection areas. The DSS allows managers to evaluate dierent area management alternatives by letting them create, delete and modify sub-areas. Fig. 4 shows a management plan for an

Fig. 4. An area management plan can be created and evaluated by the DSS program.

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single species models such as maximum sustainable yield or yield per recruit model. By using single species models, technical interactions or bycatch cannot be taken into account. As a result, target catch for all stocks cannot be reached at the same time. In this section, we present a multispecies age-structured model that can be used to calculate the optimal inter-annual management strategy. The simulation model considers S sh stocks in a planning horizon of T years. Each stock has A year-class cohorts. The number of sh in year-class a (a = 1, . . ., A) of stock s (s = 1, ..., S) at the beginning and end of the of year t (t = 1, . . ., T) are denoted by Nast, and N ast , respectively. The number of sh at the beginning of year t equals to the number of sh at the end of the previous year. N ast N a1st1 The spawning biomass of stock s at the beginning of year t is given by: Bst
A X a1

N ast was pas

Fig. 5. Setting the limit on Days-At-Sea, TAC of each stock, the opening period for the whole area and each sub-area utilizing the graphical user interface.

where pas is the contribution (in %) of age a cohort to the spawning biomass of stock s, and was is the average weight of one individual sh at age a of stock s. If Fst denotes the desired shing mortality (desired catch of species s) targeted on stock s during year t, the actual shing mortality on stock s, considering bycatch from other eets, is calculated as F 0st F st
S X i1 iS

Dis F it

alternative consisting of four arbitrary sub-areas with their corresponding shapes and sizes. Managers can input the limit on shing eort, total allowable catch (TAC) of each species, and the opening periods for the whole area and for each individual sub-area on the graphical user interface of the DSS (Fig. 5). 3. Optimization The core component of the DSS (component 10 in Figs. 1 and 2) is the engine for application of simulation modeling and optimization techniques. The simulation function evaluates the performance of an area management plan based on a set of criteria. The optimization algorithm determines the optimal shing eort allocation in terms of time, location and amount of catch. For example, shing eorts in each sub-area and time period are controlled to maximize the value of landings, while bycatch is minimized and other management goals are achieved. 3.1. Inter-annual shing strategy in the multispecies shery Multispecies shery is characterized by the geographical overlap of healthy and overshed stocks. The total allowable catch (TAC) for each stock is often calculated using

The actual shing mortality on age a cohort of stock s is estimated as F 0ast F 0st has where Ds1 s2 is the average bycatch ratio on stock s2 in the eet that targets stock s1 and has is the percentage of age a cohort of stock s vulnerable to shing gears. The number of recruits in the following year, Rst1 , is a function of the current spawning stock, Bst, represented by any given recruitment function rs (): Rst1 rBst The number of sh at the end of year t is updated as & a 1; s 1; . . . ; S Rst1 ; N ast F 0 M as ast ; 8a 2; . . . ; A; s 1; . . . ; S N ast e N 1st Rst1 N ast N ast eF ast M as
0

8a 2; . . . ; A; s 1; . . . ; S

The number of sh in age a cohort of stock s caught during year t follows the Batanovs catch equation: C ast F 0ast 0 N ast 1eF ast M as 0 F ast M as

where Mas is the annual natural mortality (the amount of natural loss of species s) of age a cohort of stock s.

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The annual landing in weight of stock s in year t is calculated as Y st

A X a1

3.3. Decision variables In our model, the shing ground is divided into B sub-areas and there are S types of eets that target each particular stock. Decision variables are dened as the management parameters used by sheries regulators in controlling shing eort or landings to maximize their stated objectives. In this case, the decision variables are the number of DAS that will be allocated to each eet (target species), in each sub-area, in each time period. The decision variables are denoted as Dsbt, where s is a target species index, b is a sub-area index, t is a time index, and T is the number of time periods in a year. Net prot of shing activities is given as revenues less operating cost: P
S B T S XXX X s1 b1 t1 j1

C ast was

where was is the average weight of a species s sh at age a. The value of the total landings in year t is calculated as Vt
S X s1

Y st es

where es is the price per ton of species s. The optimal inter-annual shing trajectory is determined by solving the following problem with respect to decision variable Fst. MaxV
T X t1

Vt B s

! CPUEsbtj pjt Dsbt cs Dsbt

subject to : BsT P

where B is the biomass target for stock s at the end of the s planning horizon. This optimization problem is non-linear, and may be stochastic if uncertainty factors in recruitment and catch are taken into account. In order to solve this problem, we use the simulation-based-optimization approach (Azadivar, 1999; Azadivar, Truong, Stokesbury, & Rothschild, 2002; Peterson & Evans, 2003). A Genetic Algorithm (Goldberg, 1989) is employed as the optimization engine for controlling the optima searching process. The value of the objective function, the total worth of the catch, is estimated for each scenario by simulating the corresponding system. 3.2. Intra-annual spatiotemporal shing plan Once the annual shing mortality or TAC is set, shing is commonly considered constant for the year. Traditional shery models hardly take into account the spatially heterogeneous distribution of sh, eort, and catch-per-unit-eort. In practice, if that information is provided, shermen can optimize their individual shing operations. Although many shing plans may result in the same amount of total catch at the end of the year, the optimal policy will give the highest market value of landings, with the lowest eort and the strongest remaining biomass. The proposed DSS provides managers with the best allocation of shing eort temporally and spatially in the period of one year. The model makes intensive use of information about geographical distribution of species, current age structure, technical interaction among species, and commercial shing CPUE. Management regulations, such as TAC and maximum DAS, are considered as constraints that must be met during the shing year. Statistical methods are also used in estimating parameters, especially CPUE from commercial shing.

where pjt is the market price of species j in the period t, cs is operating cost per day for eet s, and CPUEsbtj is the catch of species j per day by a vessel of eet s in sub-area b, at time t. As mentioned earlier these data are extracted from shery independent and dependent information and are stored in the DSSs data base. The total annual catch of species j is calculated as Cj
S B T XXX s1 b1 t1

CPUEsbtj Dsbt

3.4. Constraints Feasible solutions must satisfy the following constraints. (a) The total shing eort cannot exceed the maximum annual shing permit DMax, which is usually set prior to the shing year.
S B T XXX s1 b1 t1

Dsbt 6 DMax

(b) In order to protect sh populations that are currently at a low biomass level, the total landings of these species are required not to exceed pre-specied limits, or TAC. Here, since the total catch is a random variable we implemented this constraint by requiring that the probability that actual landings exceed TAC be less than a threshold, for example, of 5%. ! S B T XXX CPUEsbtj Dsbt > TACj Pr
s1 b1 t1

< 0:05

8 protected species j

(c) Some sub-areas may have limits on shing eort DbMax or TAC (TACjb), in a certain period of time.

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S T XX s1 t1 S T XX s1 t1

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Dsbt 6 DbMax

for some subarea b ! < 0:05

Table 1 Mean CPUE of cod with respect to sub-areas, target species, and time periods Target species of eet CPUE of cod (kg/day) Quarter 1 Sub-area 1: Multispecies Cod Haddock Yellowtail ounder Sub-area 2: Multispecies Cod Haddock Yellowtail ounder Sub-area 3: Multispecies Cod Haddock Yellowtail ounder Sub-area 4: Multispecies Cod Haddock Yellowtail ounder 256.81 593.77 420.51 0.00 170.52 2304.00 19.33 138.02 67.56 0.00 51.59 190.80 477.83 1624.06 582.50 300.50 Quarter 2 305.04 862.07 36.51 0.00 199.45 0.00 4.75 0.00 67.51 0.00 1.65 3.24 895.13 1304.50 172.40 110.73 Quarter 3 151.04 3407.87 69.10 0.00 423.47 1612.78 156.72 191.15 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 248.90 0.00 60.94 0.00 Quarter 4 77.46 115.87 256.77 0.00 902.04 756.93 1.30 16.79 0.00 0.00 0.00 1.38 476.22 1113.91 568.03 75.94

Pr

CPUEsbtj Dsbt > TACjb

for some subarea b

4. An illustrative example The ultimate goal of the DSS is to provide decision makers with the optimal spatial-temporal shing schedules for a regional eet complying with existing regulations about shing eort and total allowable catch on protected species. In this section, we use a simple example to demonstrate the basic validity of the developed DSS and to show its general features. The DSS allows managers to evaluate dierent area management alternatives via the graphical user interface. They could use a drawing tool of the DSS to dene sub-areas in shing grounds such as open areas, closed areas, Special Access Programs and Essential Fish Habitat protection areas. In addition, the DSS can set the constraints on the shing eorts. These constraints include the maximum number of days-at-sea (DAS), the total allowable catch (TAC) of each species, and the opening periods for the whole area and for each individual subarea. CPUE in terms of catch per shing day is a stochastic variable which varies with spatial locations, time periods, and target species of shing trips. In multispecies sheries, captains generally anticipate what species to be targeted for the trip upon leaving the shing port. However, there are some trips for which target species are not specied. These trips are referred to as multi-species trips. Multispecies trips may catch any species. In this example, CPUE is modeled by the log-normal distribution as used in Truong, Azadivar, & Rothschild, 2005; Truong, Jiao, Azadivar, & Rothschild, 2005. The mean of CPUE is approximated based upon the survey that has been conducted by the School for Marine Science and Technology, University of Massachusetts Dartmouth since 2002. The survey has gathered information on about 8000 tows from multi-species commercial shing vessels on Georges Bank up to year 2004. Information for each individual shing tow includes shery and oceanographic and meteorological data. These data are stored in the DSSs data base. The black plus signs in Fig. 4 indicate the locations of these shing tows. This example is designed for exploring the management plan with four sub-areas labeled as 1, 2, 3, and 4 located in counterclockwise order in the open shing areas as illustrated in Fig. 4. We consider the three major species on Georges Bank: cod, haddock and yellowtail ounder. Given a particular area, time period, and target species of shing trips, the mean CPUE can be viewed in the DSS graphical user interface. As an example, (Table 1) shows the mean CPUE of cod in the four sub-areas within each

time period of the year with four dierent targeting trips. For the simplicity, in this example we use quarters rather than months as time periods. After using the graphical user interface of the DSS to dene shing sub-areas, we chose a set of constraints for the whole area and sub-areas to estimate the shing eorts allocation and the corresponding total revenue. Our assumptions included the maximum annual DAS for the whole area as 20,000 days, and the annual TAC for cod, haddock and yellowtail ounder in the whole area as 5000 mt, 12,000 mt, and 10,000 mt, respectively. We also set the maximum annual DAS and the annual TAC for cod, haddock and yellowtail ounder in each individual sub-area, as presented in Table 2. The DSS provides performance evaluation in terms of the total revenue of the whole area with and without optimization. The total revenue without optimization is Psim = $11794.2/year. The DSS employs a linear programming engine to control the optima searching process. With

Table 2 Constraints for each sub-area Constraints on sub-areas 1 Annual DAS (day) Opening time period (month) Annual TAC for Cod (mt) Haddock (mt) Yellowtail ounder (mt) 7000 112 1500 4000 1000 2 6000 112 1000 2000 3000 3 1000 112 500 1000 3000 4 6000 112 2000 5000 3000

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Table 3 Optimal shing eort allocation for 7376 shing days Target species of eet Fishing days Quarter 1 Sub-area 1: Multispecies Cod Haddock Yellowtail ounder Sub-area 2: Multispecies Cod Haddock Yellowtail ounder Sub-area 3: Multispecies Cod Haddock Yellowtail ounder Sub-area 4: Multispecies Cod Haddock Yellowtail ounder 0 0 0 0 857 130 0 377 0 0 241 759 0 0 0 0 Quarter 2 0 0 1620 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 216 1421 Quarter 3 0 200 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 555 0 Quarter 4 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1000 0

biological measurements strongly suggests an incorporation of environmental information into stock assessment and management. The spatial-multieet model mainly relies on the data from commercial eets. Therefore, the program requires a real time or quasi-real-time mechanism of obtaining that kind of information. Armed with this analytical tool, shery managers could choose the optimal time and location to harvest to meet desired management objectives. The development of the DSS, however, is only the rst step in solving complex spatial management problems. To truly understand the spatial processes that drives the sh stock productivity, further research and development is needed. Acknowledgements Financial support for this work was provided by the Massachusetts Fisheries Recovery Commission and by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration through award NA04NMF4720339. Furthermore, Dr. Brian J. Rothschild provided invaluable scientic assistance in conducting this research. References
Azadivar, F. (1999). Simulation optimization methodologies. In P. A. Farrington, H. B. Nembhard, D. T. Sturrock, G. W. Evans (Ed.), Proceedings of the 1999 winter simulation conference (pp. 93100). Azadivar, F., Truong, T., Stokesbury, K. D. E., & Rothschild, B. J. (2002). Simulation based optimization in sheries management. In E. Yucesan, C.-H. Chen, J. L. Snowdon, & J. M. Charnes (Eds.), Proceedings of the 2002 winter simulation conference (pp. 12681275). Washington DC: IEEE Computer Society. Goldberg, D. E. (1989). Genetic algorithms in search, optimization and machine learning. Addison Wesley. Mardle, S. J., Pascoe, S., & Tamiz, M. (2000). An investigation of genetic algorithms for the optimization of multi-objective sheries bioeconomic models. International Transactions in Operational Research., 7, 3349. New England Fisheries Management Council. (2005). Appendix A: history of past management actions and impacts. Framework adjustment 41 to the northeast multispecies shery management plan. Newburyport, MA: New England Fisheries Management Council. Available from <http:// www.nefmc.org/nemulti/index.html>. Peterson, J. T., & Evans, J. W. (2003). Quantitative decision analysis for sport shery management. Fisheries, 28(1), 1021. Robinson, L. A., & Frid, C. L. J. (2001). Dynamic ecosystem models and the evaluation of ecosystem eects of shing: Can we make meaningful predictions? ICES CM 2001/T:13. Rothschild, B. J., Ault, J. S., & Smith, S. G. (1996). A system approach to sheries stock assessment and management. In V. F. Gallucci, S. B. Saila, D. J. Gustafson, & B. J. Rothschild (Eds.). Stock assessment, quantitative methods and application for small scale sheries. CRC Press. Truong, T. H., Azadivar, F., & Rothschild, B. J. (2005). Decision support system for sheries management. In M. E. Kuhl, N. M. Steiger, F. B. Armstrong, & J. A. Joines (Eds.), Proceedings of the 2005 winter simulation conference. Washington DC: IEEE Computer Society. Truong, T. H., Jiao, Y., Azadivar, F., & Rothschild, B. J. (2005). SMAST Prototype decision support system: A spatially quantitative tool for ecosystem sheries management. ICES CM 2005/L:06. Walter, C. J., & Martell, S. J. D. (2004). Fisheries ecology and management. Princeton and Oxford: Princeton University Press.

the above constraints, the optimization approach can improve the total revenue by 42.62% with Poptimal = $16820.9/year compared to Psim by using 7376 total shing days. The optimal allocation of shing eorts in terms of location, time period and shing days is given in Table 3. As these tables indicate the optimum shing amounts for each sub-area and sh species have been determined by the DSS with the resulting revenue at 42.62% above the process that did not employ this system. These results are clearly a function of the initial conditions provided for the system, which in this case were chosen randomly. Similar favorable results will be obtained by changing management decisions as they are implemented in the region. 5. Conclusions The goal of our research was to provide a systematic, quantitative and innovative tool that supports the decision-makers in sheries management. The proposed system can be used to quantify the possible impacts of certain policy instruments, especially the utilization of the area management approach. Furthermore, the system may suggest the best policies to achieve a set of management objectives. We consider our DSS as an adaptive dynamic framework that is modularly constructed such that it could be further tuned as our knowledge increases. Traditional approaches using Yield-per-Recruit or Maximum Sustainable Yield do not include the use of information about spatial and temporal distribution of sh stocks, technological interactions, etc. The recent progress in knowledge of marine ecology, resulting from a better understanding of physical processes underlying some of the large-scale biological phenomena and our ability to make continuous ne-scale