Quantitative Decision Support Tools for Improving Recreational Fisheries Assessment and Management in the Northeast United States
Department of Fisheries Oceanography
PhD Dissertation Proposal Defense
"Quantitative Decision Support Tools for Improving Recreational Fisheries Assessment and Management in the Northeast United States"
By: Kamran Walsh
Advisor: Gavin Fay (UMass Dartmouth)
Committee members
- Steven X. Cadrin (UMass Dartmouth)
- Lauran Brewster (UMass Dartmouth), and
- Samuel Truesdell (NOAA Northeast Fisheries Science Center)
Thursday December 4, 2025
9am
SMAST East 101-103
836 S. Rodney French Blvd, New Bedford
and via Zoom
Abstract:
Marine recreational fisheries play important roles in shaping the population dynamics of exploited species, yet are underrepresented in fisheries research compared to commercial and are subject to unique challenges. There is subsequently a need to strengthen assessment and management practices for recreationally important fish stocks. This dissertation aims to develop and test computational decision support tools that help identify effective recreational fisheries management strategies, better account for uncertainty in recreational fisheries discard data, and improve understanding of how socioeconomic indicators impact recreational fisheries outcomes. I will first review and synthesize available literature to aggregate information on Northeast U.S. recreational fisheries and the risks they face. I will then expand upon a Summer Flounder (Paralichthys dentatus) Management Strategy Evaluation (MSE) to test the performance of management decisions on the biological and socioeconomic productivity of this economically and culturally important recreational fishery. Following this, a recently-developed functionality of the Woods Hole Assessment Model (WHAM) that internally estimates time-varying growth will be leveraged to determine if state-space stock assessment models that directly fit to length-based recreational discard data provide more robust inference than age-structured methods. Lastly, I will incorporate socioeconomic indicators of recreational catch and effort into stock assessment models to assess how socioeconomic factors affect recreational fishery discards. This dissertation ultimately seeks to support the sustainable management of ecologically and economically important marine recreational fisheries.
Join meeting
https://umassd.zoom.us/j/99199876170
Note: Zoom meeting ID and password required. Please email Callie Rumbut to obtain.
SMAST East 101-103
: 836 S. Rodney French Boulevard, New Bedford MA 02744
Callie Rumbut
c.rumbut@umassd.edu
https://umassd.zoom.us/j/99199876170