FLR: An Open-Source Framework for the Evaluation and Development of Management Strategies

1. L.T. Kell, I. Mosqueira, P. Grosjean, J-M. Fromentin, D. Garcia, R. Hillary,  E. Jardim, S. Mardle, M. Pastoors, J. J. Poos, F. Scott and R. Scott FLR: An Open-Source Framework for the Evaluation and Development of Management Strategies

2. What is FLR? • Fisheries Library in R • Provides extensible toolbox for simulating fisheries systems. • R – Open Source implementation of S • Uses R inbuilt graphical and statistical routines • Many user developed packages

3. What can be FLR used for? • Many different things: • development of plausible biological models • simulate management procedures (harvest control rules) • development of fleet dynamic models • include economics (indicators) • new additions include compliance model • not just stock assessments (XSA, ICA etc.)

4. Philosophy of FLR • Open source license (GPL): you can modify a copy of the code, but you must distribute it under the same license. • Collaborative: Discussions are open (mailing list), website is editable, external review is encouraged • Breaking the barrier between user and developer • Improves inter-disciplinary dialogue

5. Design principles • Object Oriented Programming • Different elements of system are treated as “objects”, e.g. stocks, fleets • Each object stores data and has functions that act on that data • Data stored in five dimensions: • User defined (e.g. age or length) • Year • Unit (e.g. male / female) • Season • Area • Sixth dimension - iteration

6. Basic classes • Include: • FLBiol – biological operating model • FLSR – stock-recruitment model • FLFleet – fleet and catch data • FLAssess – basic assessment class • Objects can be linked together to create simulations – “Lego blocks” • Learning curve: trade-off between flexibility and simplicity

7. Analysis with FLEDA

8. Evaluating Management Strategies • Many sources of uncertainty: data, models, fleet behaviour, stock dynamics, environment etc. • Approach developed to simulate each aspect separately, e.g. simulate stock; assessment. • Combine simulated components within framework with feedback. • Allows for evaluation of robustness of alternative management strategies to underlying uncertainties. • Termed “Management Strategy Evaluation”. • Accepted approach (IWC, NOAA, NZ, ICES)

9. Management Strategy Evaluation Hypotheses Biological Economic Fleet behaviour Stock/Fleet Dynamics The “Fishery” The “Fishery” The “Fishery” Alternatives Measures Data Management Measures Management

10. OPERATING MODEL Represents the “true” dynamics of the system against which performance will be measured MANAGEMENT PROCEDURE Assess status of stock and set management options depending upon perceived status of fishery stock(s) MODEL CONDITIONING Management decision stage Fleet dynamics FLFleet Management procedure FLHCR Biological reference points (e.g. MSY) FLBRP IMPLEMENTATION MODEL FLEcon INITIAL CONDITIONS SUMMARY STATISTICS Used to evaluate performance of management procedures against objectives. Population biology Assessment procedure Stock dynamics FLBiol OBSERVATION ERROR MODEL Generation of data on fishery and stocks. FLOEM Perceived stock FLStock Stock assessment (e.g. VPA) FLAssess Stock processes e.g. Recruitment FLSR Auxiliary information (e.g. tuning indices) FLIndices Assessment assumptions

11. North Sea Flatfish • Under COMMIT and EFIMAS • Evaluated EU Management Strategy • Two stocks – plaice and sole • Three fleets – Dutch, UK, Other • Aim of HCR is to reduce F to FMSY • Fleets either TAC or effort limited – depending on outcome of HCR • Economics also included - indicators

12. The FLR Wiki http://flr-project.org

13. The FLR Wiki • News and developments • Documentation • Tutorials and course material • Examples • Download packages • Users and developers can edit content

14. The FLR packages • Main package: FLCore • Main classes and functions • Collection of secondary packages • FLAssess • FLEDA • What’s in a package? • R code for all classes, methods and functions • Help pages for each of them • Examples and datasets • Test scripts • CVS

15. The FLR initiative • Work funded by a number of EU projects (FEMS, COMMIT, EFIMAS, Fisboat, …) • Core team • Maintenance & development of main packages • 6 month release of official versions • Testing of submitted packages

16. COBECOS requirements • Requirement for development of generic code • Implement COBECOS theoretical approach on a case-study basis • Each case-study has individual requirements • Guidance can be provided • Use simple relationships versus complex (MSE) – depends on resources, data, linkages to other projects.