Background & Aims

Reduced Uncertainty in Stock Assessments (REDUS) is new research project based at the Institute of Marine Research in Norway.

REDUS aims to reduced  the uncertainty in stock assessment and advice for our most important fish stocks.

How REDUS will work

The REDUS project will use both a bottom-up  approach (from observations through management) and a top-down (society’s uncertainty requirements implications for observations). Thus REDUS will provide society with knowledge of how uncertainty affects stock assessment and hence quota advice, and complementary how much catches can increase if we reduce this uncertainty.

Structure

REDUS is structured around 4 work-packages that are closely interlinked through deliverables and dependencies (see figure below).

The REDUS framework

REDUS will provide a seamless and generic framework for uncertainty estimation and analysis that will allow for more optimal fisheries management (e.g. potential higher long-term quotas) and better prioritisation of fisheries monitoring and research. By coupling measures of survey and observational uncertainty with stock assessment models that account for uncertainty this provides the basis for harvest control rules and management strategy evaluation leading to providing statistically robust measures of uncertainty for quota advice and long-term harvest strategies alike. REDUS will build a generic Open Access toolbox founded on the StoX package and the S2D format that has a potential universal application in renewable marine resource management.