A model for fisheries patrol dispatch in the Canadian Atlantic offshore fishery

• Published in: Ocean & coastal management Vol. 60; pp. 48 - 55
• Main Authors: Millar, Harvey H., Russell, Suzana N.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Kidlington Elsevier Ltd 01.05.2012; Elsevier
• Subjects: Budget; cities; Coastal zone management; demersal fish; Earth sciences; Earth, ocean, space; Exact sciences and technology; Fisheries; fishery resources; Geomorphology, landform evolution; Marine and continental quaternary; monitoring; Ocean; Surficial geology; Surveillance; models; Chordata; Quaternary; upper Quaternary; networks; stocks; offshore; Vertebrata; solution; Pisces; fish; Cenozoic; Phanerozoic; Holocene; Atlantic
• ISSN: 0964-5691; 1873-524X
• DOI: 10.1016/j.ocecoaman.2012.01.001

Fisheries patrol routing involves routing a patrol vessel over a network of fishing grounds to maximize the deterrent effect of the patrol subject to trip length or budget constraints. This paper develops a prescriptive model for routing a multi-unit surveillance fleet through a set of fish stocks in the Canadian Atlantic offshore groundfish fishery. The decision problem is formulated as a 0–1 integer-programming model which is related to the well-known selective traveling salesman problem. In the fisheries patrol problem, the fishing grounds represent the cities, and all or a subset of grounds is visited on a given trip. We offer an efficient formulation and solution approach to the problem. Computational results for a hypothetical but realistic problem setting are provided. ► The Atlantic groundfish fishery is in need of protection due to the recent collapse of the industry from overfishing. ► The Department of Fisheries and Oceans is responsible for dispatching surface and aerial surveillance to protect the fishery. ► We provide dispatchers with a useful tool for planning surveillance tours for patrol vessels. ► We model the surveillance patrol dispatching problem using mathematical programming. ► We solve the mathematical model optimally using off-the-shelf software called CPLEX.