How Should We Harvest an Animal That Can Live for Centuries?

Ocean quahog (Arctica islandica) are an extremely long lived and slow growing marine bivalve that supports fisheries in several countries bordering on the northern Atlantic ocean.  The life history of the ocean quahog presents several unique challenges to fishery managers.  Scientists currently have a poor understanding of recruitment and how it might respond to declining population biomass due to fishing pressure, in part because most fisheries have operated for less than one ocean quahog generation.  It is therefore difficult to develop management quantities, such as biological reference points, using traditional means.  This simulation study examines ocean quahog recruitment dynamics, and explores the implications of a suite of fishing intensities and biomass reference points.  Results indicate that an ocean quahog fishery should be sustainable with a relatively low biomass threshold if it is fished very lightly over a long period, particularly if managers are mindful of spatial structure in recruitment.