Modeling Fish Population Dynamics for Sustainability and Resilience

Abstract

Conservation of any living creature is very vital to maintain the balance of ecosystem. Fish is one of the most regularly consumed living creatures, and hence its conservation is essential for sustainable fish population to help maintain a balanced ecosystem. It is possible to keep a sustainable fish population only if a balance between consumption and growth of fish population can be ensured. Developing a model on fish population dynamics is needed to achieve this objective. In this chapter, the authors present a system dynamics model. This model will provide the scientific tools for determining fish population, its growth, and harvesting. The model's sensitivity to changes in key parameters and initial values resulting from the changes in basic scenarios and boundary conditions was tested several times. Model results show that fish birth, growth, stocks, and catch can be controlled timely and effectively in different real-world changing conditions to maintain a sustainable fish population.