A basic activity of freshwater recreational fisheries management agencies is forecasting societal demand for fisheries resources and producing the necessary supply. Today, potential consumption often exceeds the supply of fisheries of the desired quality. A primary means for enhancing contemporary fisheries management may be to regulate angler consumption. Operations research techniques are well suited for handling the complexities involved with planning multiple action policies for regulating angler consumption. PISCES is a computer simulator of the recreational fisheries management system of Tennessee, but is adaptable for use in any state. The purpose of PISCES is to aid in planning fisheries management decision policies at the macro level. PISCES generates predictions of how fisheries management agency activities will affect angler consumption for a fiscal year. Subjective probability distributions for random variables and Monte Carlo simulation techniques are employed in PISCES to produce an expected value and standard deviation for each prediction. Test runs under realistic hypothetical situations and discussions with personnel of the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency suggest that PISCES may help fisheries management agencies to improve budget allocation decisions, to formulate multiple action policies for regulating angler consumption. and to optimize fisheries development.
