Using food web model results to inform stock assessment estimates of mortality and production for ecosystem-based fisheries management

Abstract

Examining food web relationships for commercially important species enhances fisheries management by identifying sources of variability in mortality and production that are not included in standard single-species stock assessments. We use a static mass-balance model to evaluate relationships between species in a large marine ecosystem, the coastal Gulf of Alaska, USA. We focus on food web relationships for four case-study species: Pacific halibut ( Hippoglossus stenolepis ), longnose skate ( Raja rhina ), walleye pollock ( Theragra chalcogramma ), and squids (order Teuthoidea). For each, we present the species’ position within the food web, evaluate fishing mortality relative to predation mortality, and evaluate diet compositions. We find that high trophic level (TL) species, whether commercially valuable (halibut) or incidentally caught (skates), have mortality patterns consistent with single-species assessment assumptions, where fishing mortality dominates natural mortality. However, assessments for commercially valuable (pollock) or incidentally caught (squids) mid-TL species can be enhanced by including food web derived predation information because fishing mortality is small compared with high and variable predation mortality. Finally, we outline food web relationships that suggest how production of species may change with diet composition or prey availability.