Procedures for deviating from OMP output for the recommendation for a TAC, and for initiating an OMP review for West Coast rock lobster
Currently scientific recommendations for management controls (e.g. total allowable catch (TAC) or total allowable effort (TAE)) for South Africa’s major fisheries are provided by Operational Management Procedures (OMPs). These are pre-agreed formulae for computing these control levels (usually annually), based on pre-agreed resource monitoring data inputs. This combination of formulae and data will have been simulation tested to ensure anticipated performance that is adequately robust given inevitable scientific uncertainties about data and models of the resource dynamics and fishery. (Typically these tests are divided into a core set (or “Reference Set”) of “Operating Models” for the underlying dynamics, which cover the more plausible scenarios that have quantitatively important implications, and “Robustness tests” which involve operating models for scenarios considered relatively less plausible or important.)
The intention is that these OMPs be used on a routine basis to provide such scientific management advice, subject to regular four-yearly reviews. However, occasionally “Exceptional Circumstances” can arise which may indicate the need for recommendations to deviate from the outputs from such OMPs, or necessitate bringing the regular review forward. The purpose of this document is to specify the procedures governing the identification of such circumstances, and the resultant actions that may follow.
This document is constructed as a template that applies generally to OMPs, whatever the fishery to which they apply, but it does also include sections which are fishery-specific.