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

Dataset DOI: [10.5061/dryad.q2bvq83zv](10.5061/dryad.q2bvq83zv)

## Description of the data and file structure

This data is generated from an management strategy evaluation (MSE) closed-loop simulation model, built for analyzing the performance of the Alaska Sablefish fishery when managed under 10 different harvest control rule policies, across 4 different future recruitment scenarios.

### Files and variables

#### File: zahneretal2025_mseruns_FINAL2.RDS

**Description:** Final MSE output data. Data is formatted as an R list object, where each list object corresponds to a single MSE simulation run (1 combination of HCR and OM scenario). Within each list object are the following array objects:

* land_caa: landed catch-at-age (in units of mt)
* disc_caa: discarded catch-at-age (in units of m...,