Alba presents her work on bioeconomic models at the University of California

Bioeconomic models are powerful tools to integrate the ecological and economical components of a fishery and to determine appropriate levels of stock and catch. As part of her PhD project and in line with the objectives of CLOCK, Alba Aguión is working on a spatial bioeconomic model for the stalked barnacle fishery in Galicia.  After her visit to the University of Oviedo (Spain) to work with Antonella Rivera, Alba has just started a 3-month research stay at the Bren School of Environmental Science and Management (University of California, Santa Barbara) to work under the supervision of Christopher Costello, a world expert in these type of models.

As a way to introduce herself and her research interests at Bren, Alba presented her work this Wednesday at the Marine Science Institute. In the seminar researchers from the Sustainable Fisheries Group (SFG) and students and researchers from the emLAB provided their comments. The emLAB is a new interdisciplinary team launched at Bren that focuses their research on environmental economics.

During the seminar a very productive discussion was held on important issues to consider when constructing the model as well as considerations on the rationale of rotational harvest, a key aspect in Alba´s model. In addition, Alba had the chance to meet other students at Bren that work on similar topics. This seminar has been a great starting point at the University of California Santa Barbara, where Alba will keep working on her bioeconomic model until December. From FOL we thank SFG for hosting Alba and Campus do Mar (University of Vigo) for partially funding her research stay there.