Bioeconomics of the Pacific sardine (Sardinops sagax) fishery in the Gulf of California, Mexico

A bioeconomic model integrating biological and economic factors is develope d for the Pacific sardine fishery in the Gulf of California. The model fact ors in the dynamics of the population structure and applies the basic conce pts of the cohort-survival method. Seasonal recruitment was modeled with th e distributed-delay method. The dynamics of the fleet were modeled by Smith 's function with distributed delays to represent time lags in entry-exit pr ocesses. Performance variables such as biomass, fishery yield, effort, and net returns offered robust valuations of the behavior over time, showing a resource overexploited and a fishery fleet overcapitalized. The maximum eco nomic yield and bioeconomic equilibrium of the fishery were also obtained. Of the alternative management strategies considered, minimum size of captur e was most successful, offering important increases in the bioeconomic vari ables.