Qualitative modelling of fishermen's behaviour in a pelagic fishery

As managers and fishery scientists become increasingly aware of the need to understand fishermens’ behaviour when faced with new management strategies, there is a growing need to develop models that describe their decision-making processes and tools that are able to simulate the possible outcomes of alternative management scenarios. This paper shows how data collected on board fishing vessels, a source of data currently available for many fleets and fisheries around the world, can be combined with Rule Based Fuzzy Cognitive Maps, a modelling technique that is able to deal with both quantitative and qualitative data. Results show that the presented model is able to replicate with a reasonably precision the behaviour of a pelagic fishery. Results and the potential of Rule-Based Fuzzy Cognitive Maps to predict fisher's behaviour are discussed.

► We use data collected on board fishing vessels to design a cognitive map of a pelagic fishery.
► This cognitive map is modelled using Rule Based Fuzzy Cognitive Maps.
► Three scenario are simulated for validation purposes and to see how the model behaves to different situations.
► According to data collected we found that the model replicates with reasonably precision the behaviour of a pelagic fishery.