Multiple objectives and perceptions of optimal management: the Danish industrial fishery in the North Sea

Fisheries management involves many stakeholders with different opinions about how the fishery should be optimally managed. This paper presents a multi-objective bio-economic model, which is able to incorporate the preferences of managers and other stakeholders. The model is a weighted goal programme covering the Danish industrial fishery. Economic, political and biological concerns are considered simultaneously and, by applying the preference structures of different stakeholders, it shows how the optimally managed fishery would look from the perspective of managers and various interest groups. Managers, in this case the Danish Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Fisheries, are provided with a management tool that shows the consequences of their preferences towards the objectives, and can be compared with optimal solutions as perceived by other stakeholders.