Data from: Comparing alternative harvest strategies to address robustness to recruitment variability and uncertainty: Implications for Alaska Sablefish tested with management strategy evaluation

Developing robust fisheries management strategies for exploited fish
stocks is imperative amid rapid ecosystem changes. In Alaska, sablefish
(Anoplopoma fimbria) have recently experienced several large recruitment
events, resulting in rapid population growth and a concomitant increase in
catch of small, low value fish. Current management may not ensure
long-term economic stability nor maintain the age structure diversity
necessary for population resilience. Using a management strategy
evaluation (MSE) framework, we assessed alternative management strategies
under random, regime-like, and recruitment-failure scenarios. Data
includes raw simulation output from 200, 75-year long, MSE simulations for
all combinations of 10 harvest control rules and 4 recruitment
scenarios. Strategies that substantially reduced fishing
mortality improved stock size and age diversity. Catch stability
constraint strategies provided minimal long-term benefits and increased
risk during recruitment collapses, although they slightly accelerated
population recovery times. Harvest caps maintained higher population
sizes, promoted moderate, consistent catches, and modestly expanded
population age structure. However, no strategy prevented population
declines under prolonged recruitment failure. Results underscore the
importance of refining harvest control rules to better balance catch and
population stability.