Recent advances in management strategy evaluation: introduction to the special issue “Under pressure: addressing fisheries challenges with Management Strategy Evaluation”

Abstract

Management strategy evaluation (MSE) is an increasingly popular tool for developing, testing, and implementing fisheries management regimes, oftentimes utilizing participatory modeling. This special issue, “Under pressure: addressing fisheries challenges with Management Strategy Evaluation”, includes eleven articles highlighting cutting edge MSE approaches and perspectives on improving stakeholder engagement. The special issue is the culmination of a two-session MSE symposium held during the 147th American Fisheries Society Annual Meeting in Tampa, Florida. We summarize the themes from the symposium and special issue articles. Contributions demonstrated that important strides have been made in quantifying and exploring risk (by including more sophisticated multispecies and socioeconomic components), developing and testing data-limited harvest control rules, acknowledging and diagnosing limitations of MSE (e.g., identifying exceptional circumstances), and dealing with issues of stakeholder engagement and dimensionality (e.g., determining appropriate representation, communication techniques, and participation levels). Although MSE is a not a panacea for marine policy and resource utilization issues, it is a useful tool for implementing co-management regimes that should become increasingly robust as the multidisciplinary nature of MSE processes continues to expand.