A simple delay-difference assessment with UMSY and MSY as leading parameters
that estimates \(E_{\textrm{MSY}}\) using a
time-series of catches and a relative abundance index.
This DD model is observation error only and has does not estimate
process error (recruitment deviations). Assumption is that knife-edge
selectivity occurs at the age of 50
models it depends on a whole host of dubious assumptions such as temporally
stationary productivity and proportionality between the abundance index and
real abundance. Unsurprisingly the extent to which these assumptions are
violated tends to be the biggest driver of performance for this method.
The method is conditioned on effort and estimates catch. The effort is calculated
as the ratio of catch and index. Thus, to get a complete effort time series, a full
time series of catch and index is also needed. Missing values are linearly interpolated.
A detailed description of the delay-difference model can be found in Chapter 9 of Hilborn
and Walters (1992).