1. MECON
MECON is a simple bioeconomic fisheries model. Its main
purpose is to illustrate the dynamics of a fish stock subject to fishing by an
economic agent. The fishing fleet has certain economic and technical
characteristics (Capital, fishing power, effort, etc.) which inflicts a fishing
mortality (F) to the fish stock. The fishing process results in catches which
are then sold and transformed in revenues. A fraction of these revenues will
directly be used to increase or diminish the Capital or the effort of the fleet.
The fishing mortality is dynamically changed at each time step, by virtue of the
relationship of F with q (catchability) and E (Effort). q can be held constant
or be a function of the Capital and/or time.
MECON can be used to study the changes produced in the
fishing system by technical or economic measures imposed by the user, either as
start-up conditions or at given periods of the simulation horizon (events).
For general information and requests, please contact: F. Maynou,
maynouf@icm.csic.es
For specific requests on the biological model, contact: J.
Lleonart, lleonart@icm.csic.es
For specific requests on the economic model, contact: R.
Franquesa, ramon@gemub.com
INTERNATIONAL USE:
Click on donwload
MECON to save it in your computer, packed as a ZIP file
(800 K). Extracting and execute setup.exe, then follow the instructions.
2. MEFISTO
We present a software package implementing a
bioeconomic model for the Mediterranean fisheries. The first objective of the
model is to reproduce the bio-economic conditions in which the fisheries occur.
The model is, perforce, multispecific and multigear. The main management
procedure is effort limitation. The model also incorporates the usual
fishermen strategy of increasing efficiency, in order to increase fishing
mortality, while maintaining the nominal effort. This is modeled by means of a
function relating the efficiency (or technological progress) with the capital
invested in the fishery, and time. A second objective is to simulate
alternative management strategies. The model allows operating with technical
and economic management measures and in the presence of different kind of
events.
The objectives of managing the simulated fishery can be
diverse. They could be to maximize fishing production or revenues, to minimize
catch fluctuations, to avoid the risk of collapse of the resource, etc. The
manager has two kinds of tools available: technical (such as effort limitation)
or economic (such as subsidies and taxes). The effectiveness of each of these
tools in achieving the manager's purpose varies. In a complex system, as
fisheries can be, it is not always evident what will be the response from the
system to a certain management measure. Thus MEFISTO is designed as a tool to
study the outcome of different management measures on a simulated, but
realistic, Mediterranean fishery.
The final users of the product are three: the scientist,
the decision-maker, and the fisherman. For the scientist the present model
constitutes a research tool that should lead to an improved understanding of
the mechanisms by which the fisheries system operates. It can also be an
advisory tool, as the model acts as a test bench for analysing different
management options, decision risks, sensibility of the parameters, etc. For
the administrators and decision-makers, the model offers a way to assess the
economic and biological effects of particular management measures (technical,
economic or both) in the short and mid term. This could be very useful in the
design of policies for mid-term objectives and for exploring the different
ways to attain them. It is also important that the administrators realize the
extent to which the fishery depends on the dynamics of a biological resource
and not only on economic decisions.
The model offers fishermen a new perspective on the behavior
of the system, including its temporal scale. The model should
contribute to increased comprehension of the usefulness or uselessness of
certain management measures, and establish the difference between short and
mid term regarding earnings and losses
INSTALLATION:
Click on download
MEFISTO to save it in your computer, packed as a ZIP file (4,5
Mg). Extracting and execute setup.exe, then follow the instructions.
To run the program, select it in the Start menu. Then,
the user can introduce automatically three example cases (tarrago.sim
malaga.sim and lyon.sim). To select them use "file"->"open"
from Mefisto menu.
EXAMPLE FILES:
You can access to three example files (lyon.sim,
tarrago.sim and malaga.sim) from File->Open from MEFISTO menu. The
examples are described in the following documents. You need Acrobat reader to
read this documents (Free
download Acrobat):
