Management strategy evaluation of mackerel (Scomberomorus niphonius) fishery with uncertainty of catch data

Spanish mackerel is an economic species in the Yellow Sea and Bohai Sea, which occupies an important position in marine fishery, and it is important to evaluate its biomass and stock status. However, the fishery lacks relevant data in China, which causes the difficulty in fisheries evaluation and management. Among them, the uncertainty of catch data is especially noticeable, and its variation in values and trends is often measured with the observation error and bias. This study evaluated the performances of six data-limited management procedures which belong to two categories: output control and input control, and we focus on their response and sensitivity to observation error and bias of catch data. Our results indicate that output control MPs including CC4、SPMSY and AvC are more sensitive to observation error and bias, while DD showed slight response to observation error and bias, which is more suitable for managing mackerel fishery. And the sensitivity analysis showed that output control MPs are sensitive to the OM parameters including B_MSY/B₀, hs, F_MSY/M and F_MSY. Relatively, the input control including minlenLopt1 and curE75 is not sensitive to the uncertainty of catch data and OM parameters. In general, we can conclude that the input control MP shows minor responses to the catch error and catch bias, whereas the output control MP shows different responses to the catch error. And according to the MSE, curE75 has the best balance between the exploitation and protection of mackerel fishery.