The overall aim of the study was to develop and analyse the actual objective structure present within EU fisheries management from the perspectives of the different interest groups, including associated priorities perceived.
This result describes the development of multi-objective models of the case study fisheries to further consider the effects of interest group preferences on the direction of management. In this instance, it was particularly concerned with identifying how a groups preferences may affect the structure of the fisheries in relation to each other. In some cases, the models developed were built wholly as part of the project, however in others data and relationships from previous European funded studies were developed and enhanced, and the multiple objectives identified previously incorporated explicitly. In all cases, data has been collated for analysis which has not been undertaken in this detail previously.
As such, this result combines two key components of the project: the development of the actual multi-objective models; and the use of those models to investigate implications for management. The models developed have used different optimising philosophies and different management scenarios with the objectives, from long-term equilibrium to short term and dynamic analysis. It has not been possible to include all aspects in all models, however the use of weighted goal programming in the base case has enabled comparison across the case studies to be made. The complexity is apparent in all models, and accordingly highlighted in the results obtained and implications for management discussed.
In summary, the analyses have shown that the models developed are well suited to the analysis and planning of fisheries management strategy. As a consequence, much of the methodology developed would be as applicable to other similar natural resource areas. Two reports, namely the Multi-objective Modelling Report (D6) and the accompanying Implications for Management Report (D7) are the main deliverables from this result. The former detailing the development of the models and latter presenting the results and analyses. Several conference papers have been presented during this result, and are planned in the near future. Furthermore, many of these have (and are) been developed as papers for journal submission. In fact four papers from this result have abstracts accepted for the European Association of Fisheries Economists annual conference, 2003. Two of which deal specifically with the potential consequences of using multi-objective methodology for the analyses of fisheries management planning strategy. The majority of these conference papers are intended to be (and are being) developed for submission to journals for consideration for publication. Some of the journals suggested by the project team are Marine Resource Economics, ICES Journal of Marine Science, Fisheries Research, and Socio-Economic Planning Sciences.