December 6, 2013

The Consequences of Balanced Harvesting of Fish Communities


New study uses size- and trait-based models to compare balanced harvesting with traditional selective fishing patterns

“Balanced harvesting” is a new proposal to the management of fished populations. The concept is to balance the fishery with the production of new biomass. A balanced fishery is unselective and targets mainly small, and often immature individuals, and to a much smaller degree large fish. It is a controversial concept, as this fishing strategy allows young fish to be caught before they have a chance to reproduce.