The BiOeconomic mArine Trophic Size-spectrum (BOATS) model simulates the global fishery as a coupled ecological-economic system. The growth and reproduction of multiple fish size spectra are predicted at each grid cell on the globe from local water temperature and net primary production, which can be provided from observational data or a coupled biogeochemical-climate model (Carozza GMD 2016). The intensity of fishing effort in each grid cell changes over time in response to the economic profit, which is determined by the catchability, fish price, fishing cost and catchable biomass  (Carozza PLoS 2017).

Model development is currently led by Daniele Bianchi and Jérôme Guiet at UCLA, and BOATSv2 has recently been finalized. This version includes multiple new features including dynamic fisheries management and separates demersal and pelagic populations, and provides a greatly improved simulation of the high seas that agrees well with observations.

BOATS is a regular contributor to the Fisheries and Marine Ecosystems Model Intercomparison Project (Fish-MIP).

Some BOATS results

Bianchi et al. (2021). Estimating global biomass and biogeochemical cycling of marine fish with and without fishing. Science Advances. BOATS was used to provide estimates for the global distribution of both commercial and non-commercial fish, and their cycling rates.

Scherrer et al. (2020). Marine wild-capture fisheries after nuclear war. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Shows that the response of global fisheries to a sudden future climatic shock depends primarily on the effectiveness of regulations prior to the shock. BOATS is forced with climate model simulations of nuclear conflict as an example.

Scherrer, Kim and Eric Galbraith (2020). Regulation strength and technology creep play key roles in global long-term projections of wild capture fisheries. ICES Journal of Marine Science. Describes a new fishery regulation scheme in BOATS, applicable to global long-timescale simulations, and uses it to illustrate the importance of technology creep and regulation effectiveness for 21st century fisheries.

Guiet J., Galbraith, E.D., Bianchi, D., and Cheung, W. (2020), Bioenergetic influence on the historical development and decline of industrial fisheries. ICES Journal of Marine Science. Compares BOATS with observations and shows that bioenergetics would have favoured the early development of industrial fisheries in cold water ecosystems, contributing to the observed historical progression of fishery development.

Lotze, H. K., Tittensor, D. P., Bryndum-Buchholz, A., Eddy, T. D., Cheung, W. W., Galbraith, E. D., et al. (2019). Global ensemble projections reveal trophic amplification of ocean biomass declines with climate change. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. BOATS contributed to the multi-model Fish-MIP ensemble.

Carozza, D.A., D. Bianchi and E.D. Galbraith (2018). Metabolic impacts of climate change on marine ecosystems: implications for fish communities and fisheries, Global Ecology and Biogeography. BOATS simulations decompose the effects of climate change into temperature- and primary-production components, show how they vary spatially, and how they interact with fishing pressure.

How to go BOATing

BOATS was written in MATLAB, and version 1 is available for download here.