ABSTRACT
For several decades fisheries have been managed according to a principle that is mainly due to due to due to Beverton and Holt (1957) and that can be summarized as follows: (1) fish populations are highly reproductive and fisheries must be careful to respect the reproduction phase (Hjort, 1926); (2) there is, in the long term, a relationship between constant fishing pressure (effort) and the resulting stock level (Schaefer, 1957), and (3) there exists, in the long term, an optimal harvesting strategy such that stocks are preserved and yield is maximized (Gordon, 1954; Schaefer, 1957). Managing a fishery consists in being careful about short-term optimization behaviors that may endanger the long-term stability of the system (Botsford et al., 1997; Beddington et al., 2007).
