A simulation model for assessing fishing fleet performance under uncertainty

The authors present a simulation model for assessing the impact of myopia and catch rate variability on the cost performance of a coordinated fishing fleet. The trawler dispatching problem faced by integrated fish-processing firms in the Canadian Atlantic groundfish industry is modeled using the simulation language SLAM II. The results show that myopic dispatching of the fleet can lead to significant increases in the cost of satisfying species requirements at the firm´s plants. The results obtained for the experiments which incorporated variability in catch rates show the cost increases with increasing variability, but not in a dramatic way. The results obtained from the model can be used to make some generalizations about the industry, particularly if it can be shown that the model can out-perform a company´s experience on a given test problem from historical records