A versatile new stock-recruitment relationship for fisheries, and the construction of sustainable yield curves

Abstract

A versatile functional form relating recruitment to spawning stock biomass for fisheries is proposed. The non-negative, three-parameter form distinguishes resilience and degree of compensation as two aspects of the density dependence of recruitment, and permits the representation of non-asymptotic, asymptotic, and domed stock-recruitment relationships by parameter variation within the same functional form. Simple methods for parameter estimation are discussed.