UW Aquatic & Fishery Sciences Quantitative Seminar

Charlotte Boyd

SAFS, UW

A Spatially-Explicit Individual-Based Foraging Model for Central Place Foragers

Reduced food availability has been identified as a threat to a number of globally threatened or near-threatened marine species, especially central place foragers in regions where large commercial fisheries target forage fish. The design of effective conservation and management responses depends on our understanding of how changes in the abundance and distribution of food resources impact foraging success. I will describe a spatially-explicit individual-based foraging model (IBFM) designed to investigate these questions, and present results for Peruvian Boobies (Sula variegata) and Guanay Cormorants (Phalacrocorax bougainvillii) foraging on a variable stock of Peruvian anchoveta (Engraulis ringens). The IBFM is designed to be a flexible and accessible tool that can be adapted to other central place foragers, including fishing vessels.