Simulating the impact of policy changes in Icelandic lumpsucker fishery

Abstract

In the fishing year 2012 a new regulation was enforced in the Icelandic lumpsucker fishery which made it obligatory for fishermen to land everything they catch. Before 2012 the common practice involved cutting the fish belly open on-board, removing the roe sac and then discarding the flesh as it has had little commercial value. A bio-economic model of the lumpsucker fishery was constructed and simulated for the next 25 years with the aim of assessing the impact of this non-discard policy on the profitability margin of the fishery and the number of jobs within the fishery. A system dynamics approach was applied; a causal loop diagram was developed describing how variables affect one another followed by model implementation in Stella.