Resource allocation in the North Sea demersal fisheries: A goal programming approach

The management of a fishery is a complex task generally involving multiple, often conflicting, objectives. These objectives typically include economic , biological and social goals such as improving the income of fishers, redu cing the catch of depleted species and maintaining employment. Multi-criteria decision making (MCDM) techniques appear well-suited to such a management problem, allowing compromises between conflicting objectives to be analysed in a structured framework. In comparison to other fields, su ch as water resource planning, forestry and agriculture, there have been fe w applications of MCDM to fisheries. In this paper, a goal programming model of the North Sea demersal fishery i s presented. The model is used to demonstrate the potential applicability o f this type of approach to the analysis and development of fisheries manage ment plans with multiple objectives. Alternative scenarios are considered f or the problem, and trade-offs between given objectives are also highlighte d and discussed.