Experiences in the evaluation and implementation of management procedures

A synthesis of the authors' experience with the evaluation and implementation of management procedures in Australasia, southern Africa, and the International Whaling Commission (IWC) is presented. The development of operating models for testing such procedures for the fisheries in question over their respective ranges of uncertainty, together with the statistics used to assess procedure performances, are considered first, and then suggestions are made that increasing experience is making it possible to develop a minimal set of key factors to include in such robustness trials. Some general lessons are drawn, primarily from the IWC's process of developing its Revised Management Procedure. Further implementation issues discussed are: candidate procedure selection in principle and practice, the extent of robustness testing desirable, the link to the evaluation of research priorities, and the reception accorded the management procedure approach by industry and decision-makers. Management procedures are seen to have potential benefits over the annual assessment basis for determination of Total Allowable Catch, but key problem areas that remain concern the definition of risk and the relative weights to be accorded to the various scenarios (of differing plausibilities) considered in robustness tests.