Introduction
Fisheries must be managed using imperfect information about the biology and state of a stock; thus, successful management strategies must be robust in light of this lack of detailed information. We examine rotational harvest of
American sea scallops (Placopecten magellanicus) as one such robust management strategy. The scallop fishery commonly
uses dredges for harvesting, which can result in a high indirect mortality. Indirect mortality caused by fishing
(e.g., discarding or damage to fish not caught in fishing gear) is one of the major problems in the management of the
world’s fisheries (Alverson et al. 1994). Although it is now accepted that the calculations of biological reference points,
such as the maximum allowed fishing mortality rate, should include indirect fishing mortality (Chen and Gordon 1997),
this is rarely done in practice.