The object of the research is the investigation of commercially exploited animal populations undergoing significant extinction risk.

The tools for the assessment of the extinction risk and its sensitivity to international parameters and external factors will be developed. The combination of simulation techniques and optimisation methods will make it possible to work out the exploitation policy that maximises survival probability. The dual problem of maximising the economic criterion and securing a certain survival probability can be solved with one blow.

These techniques will be applied to the viability analysis of several specific populations, in particular fish from the Sea of Azov. Previously developed simulation models will be expanded and updated. The new model will include economic indices (catch value, fishing and restocking costs) as well as ecological indices summarised in an extinction risk assessment.