Adaptive Harvest Strategy

An adaptive harvest strategy is a pre-agreed management plan that adjusts catch or effort each year as stock status and new data change, applying the same harvest control rule repeatedly rather than renegotiating limits each season. It pairs monitoring with a feedback rule: when estimated biomass falls toward a limit reference point the rule cuts the catch, and when biomass recovers it eases off. Management strategy evaluation tests the rule by simulation against uncertainty before adoption. RFMOs such as CCSBT and the IOTC use this design for tuna so quotas track stock condition without annual political bargaining.