Using an Atlantis model of the southern Benguela to explore the response of ecosystem indicators for fisheries management

Abstract

Atlantis is a whole-of-system modelling framework developed for Management Strategy Evaluation. This paper describes an Atlantis model that was built to simulate the southern Benguela ecosystem and its major associated fisheries to assist fisheries management in the region. We divided the region into spatial zones based on hydrodynamics, current fishing management, and important ecosystem processes. We divided the biological components of the system into functional groups based on trophic interaction, life history traits and fisheries management objectives. We evaluated the model against historical data and known ecosystem interactions (such as competition and predation), and found that it s..