Transparent multispecies analysis: an exploration of fisheries and survey data off the Norwegian coast and Barents Sea

Abstract

An integrated spreadsheet system was designed to combine biomass estimates for species including commercial fish species, mammals, and various other groups off the Norwegian coast and in the Barents Sea with catch data and feeding data in order to evaluate annual changes in the stocks. A time interval of two weeks was used in the simulation. No attempt was made to balance the spreadsheet; it was left transparent, with few assumptions and with results directly attributable to the data input. Eventually, the output can be used to track down important multispecies interactions and ecosystem functions. More importantly, however, the model highlights obvious gaps and deficiencies in our data and knowledge of the ecosystem, which will help to focus subsequent research.