What Predator Behavioral Models Can Tell Us about Managing Southern Ocean Krill Fisheries

Understanding the relationship between the abundance of prey, consumption of those prey by predators, and reproductive success of predators (broadly, the functional response of the predator) is an important component of ecosystem based approaches to fishery management.  But these relationships are also particularly difficult to measure.  I will provide a  brief overview of the Southern Ocean ecosystem system, and the role that the Antarctic krill plays as a foundational forage species. I will then briefly describe a set of management models developed by George Watters (NOAA Fisheries Antarctic Ecosystem Research Division) and colleagues in which the predator functional response is a key component.  Finally, I will explain how behavioral models for the predators, using state dependent life history theory, can allow the computation of functional responses from more fundamental biological principles, thus informing the management models.