Hunt Allocation Modeling for Migrating Animals: The Case of Baffin Bay Narwhal, Monodon monoceros.

WATT, CORTNEY A.; DONIOL-VALCROZE, THOMAS; WITTING, LARS; HOBBS, RODERICK C.; HANSEN, RIKKE GULDBORG; LEE, DAVID S.; MARCOUX, MARIANNE; LESAGE, VERONIQUE; GARDE, EVA; FERGUSON, STEVEN H.; HEIDE-JØRGENSEN, MADS PETER

Hunted animals are often managed as static management units, or stocks, specific to hunting regions. However, movement of animals between regions poses a particular challenge for management to ensure that the hunt of individual stocks is sustainable. The incorporation of genetic information in stock assessments can improve management decisions, but the resolution of genetics may not differentiate stocks, making the use of movement data necessary. The Joint Working Group of the North Atlantic Marine Mammal Commission (NAMMCO) and the Canada-Greenland Joint Commission on Conservation and Management of Narwhal and Beluga (JCNB) has developed a model that allocates catches in different hunting regions and seasons to different stocks based on movement data, local knowledge, and expert opinion. The model uses information on stock size, catches in different hunting areas/seasons, and a matrix which estimates the proportion of animals in each stock that are available to hunters in different regions and seasons. This matrix can be informed by quantitative data on stock structure (e.g., genetics, telemetry) or qualitative information (local knowledge, expert opinion, etc.). Uncertainty in the availability of animals and individual stock sizes is incorporated in a stochastic version. The model is presented using a case study of narwhals, which are managed as stocks based on their summer distribution in Canada and Greenland.

GREENLAND; NARWHAL; MIGRATORY animals; LOCAL knowledge; MARINE mammals; INFORMATION modeling

Marine Fisheries Review, 2019, Vol 81, Issue 3/4, p125

0090-1830

Academic Journal

10.7755/MFR.81.3-4.8