Space Oddity: Recent Advances Incorporating Spatial Processes in the Fishery Stock Assessment and Management Interface Part 1

Population processes occur at various spatio-temporal dimensions, yet fishery stock assessment and management is typically conducted at an aggregate stock-level spatial resolution. However, recent technological advances related to fishery monitoring, animal tracking, and geostatistical analyses have resulted in an improved understanding of the influence of spatial patterning and processes on fish population dynamics.  Consequently, spatial management measures are increasingly being explored in response to heterogeneous fishing patterns and local stock depletion.   However, moving from spatially-aggregated to spatially-explicit policies can cause non-intuitive results due to complex population structure at both local and regional scales (e.g., caused by multiscalar metapopulation dynamics).  Because the ability to match the spatial scales of biological processes, assessment outputs, and management policies (including the calculation of biological reference points) is critical to achieving sustainable fisheries, a flurry of spatial modelling techniques have recently been developed, setting forth a path to improved spatial management. The objective of this symposium is to facilitate discussion and collaborative interaction on contemporary spatial applications in fisheries, particularly those that can be directly incorporated into spatial population dynamics models or management strategies.  Given the complex and multidimensional nature of fisheries management,  presenters will come from a diversity of backgrounds and areas ofexpertise such as stock assessment, tagging, reference point calculation, and decision analysis tools including simulation testing and management strategy evaluation.  The symposium is considered a natural progression of the AFS2014 theme session on "The Next Generation of Fish Stock Assessments", with a refined focus on spatial considerations for assessment and management.