Comparing a suite of surplus-production-based stock status identification approaches and management procedures

Different approaches have been used to identify fishery stock status when only biomass and catch data are available. However, the performance of the approaches may be affected by the uncertainties derived from different sources (e.g., model misspecification, stock productivity changing, observation error). Here, we propose that the observed biomass associated with the highest calculated surplus production can be used as an indicator (B_{highest_S} ) to identify stock status. We develop a management procedure (MP) atop a widely used method (i.e., Gcontrol) by incorporating B_{highest_S} in the harvest control rule. Two simulations are conducted to compare the stock status identification approaches and corresponding MPs. Using B_{highest_S} to identify stock status performs better than surplus production modeling approaches in simulated regime shift scenarios. Compared with the old version of Gcontrol, incorporating B_{highest_S} or estimated B_MSY in the harvest control rule provides more stable and higher yields. This study contributes to the development and evaluation of indicator-based stock status identification approaches and MPs that only require biomass and catch data.