Fisheries Ecosystem Modeling
and Assessment Project

On a global scale, fisheries management has been based on single-species plans that have essentially ignored the effects of technical (e.g., bycatch, discards) and biological (e.g., predator-prey) interactions on population abundance. Traditional fisheries models focus on the interplay between exploitation and sustainability and, at most, capture the biology of the species under study. In recent years, however, significant attention has been devoted to consider the feasibility of developing multispecies fisheries management plans that are the functional result of an ecosystem-based management philosophy. The notion here is based on the fact that single-species management tools do not always reflect fishery or biological reality.

In the Chesapeake Bay region, this evolving cognizance about fisheries management has gained substantial momentum, as evident by the emergence of multispecies plenary and steering groups (e.g., the Fisheries Ecosystem Planning Committee) and the convening of multispecies technical workshops (e.g., Prospects for Multispecies Fisheries Management in Chesapeake Bay: A Workshop – STAC Publication 98-002). In effort to continue the development of ecosystem-based approaches to fisheries management in the Chesapeake Bay, the Virginia Environmental Endowment awarded funding to the Virginia Institute of Marine Science in 2001, to develop a new multispecies research group at the Institute. The project was organized by Dr. Robert Latour and named the Fisheries Ecosystem Modeling and Assessment Project. The primary function of this workgroup is to construct a series of tropho-dynamic models that involve commercially and recreationally important marine resources in The Chesapeake Bay for the purposes of understanding community dynamics and ultimately to assist with the development of ecosystem-based management plans.