The growing value of age: exploring economic gains from age-specific harvesting in the Northeast Arctic cod fishery

The importance of a fish stock's age structure is increasingly recognized in economics and ecology. Still, current policies predominately rely on measures of the aggregate biomass. Here, a detailed bio-economic model is calibrated on the Northeast Arctic cod (Gadus morhua) fishery to assess the efficiency gains from controlling gear selectivity and explore them under a suite of different scenarios. While the absolute size of economic gains varies drastically with the particular biological modeling assumptions, the relative economic gains from age-differentiated management show that it is high time to move beyond traditional reference points.