Management Strategy Evaluation to Compare Sampling Programs in the Southeastern U.S

Designing data collection programs can be challenging because of spatial and temporal gradients in age structure and life history traits.  Furthermore, the effects of suboptimal data collection programs can be difficult to determine because of the complexity of how the data are used in management.  We conducted a management strategy evaluation to determine the effects of alternative fishery dependent and independent data collection programs on the management of Red Porgy Pagrus pagrus in the southeastern U.S.  The operating model was spatially explicit with larval transport among regions to distribute recruits.  The age and growth patterns of red porgy vary along a north-south gradient with older red porgy being found at higher latitudes.  Commercial and recreational fishing effort was distributed based on effort by port, expected catch per unit effort in each region, and distance from the port to the region.  Several alternative sampling regimes were simulated including random sampling, spatially stratified sampling, temporally stratified sampling, and spatio-temporally stratified sampling.  The data sets were then input into an age-structured assessment model which generated a quota that was implemented with error.  The best sampling strategy for fishery dependent data was different than the best strategy for fishery-independent data.