EASyEASy
The GIS program that simulates habitats,
integrating high quality imagery and analytical tools.

 

Fisher Behavior

Courtesy of NOAA Fisheries Collection; Photographer Jose CortFishing fleets, based on historical fleet and catch data from more than ten countries, are represented in Fishscape.

Individual fishers follow a complex fishing routine that currently or will soon include considerations of vessel size, species fished, country of origin, fish and fuel prices, and fishing and detection gear types. The fisher model works in tandem with the oceanographic model and fish dynamics model to determine where, when and how many fish are successfully caught and sold.

We plan on eventually incorporating multiple fisher models of varying complexity into Fishscape. The simplest version will involve generating a simple estimate of number of fishing sets conducted in a defined environmental area, resulting in a number of fish removed from the system. The most complex model will include hundreds of individual vessels of different countries and corporations that all conduct unique fishing voyages and sell fish based on historical and predicted supply and demand.