MSY seems like man’s way of saying that we know better than mother nature. I can see where that has gotten us and pretty sure how that story ends.


Another account of MSY explained by the Kenny Tao paper Fishing in the North Atlantic: What’s Left?
“The modern approach to avoid overfishing was to establish the amount of maximum sustainable yield (MSY) (Hagler, 1995). It can be defined as the maximum rate of population removal without jeopardizing the stock for next season (Ricklefs, 1993).” Unfortunately, MSY is a form of gambling in which fishery managers’ attempt, as a matter of speculation, to extract maximum yields from a natural resource, on the assumption that, if they get it wrong one year, they will be able to get right the next. “It is by calculating the MSY that the United Nation's Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) reports that 70 percent of the world's commercial fish species are now fully exploited, overexploited, or depleted (Helvarg, 1997). MSY is not the perfect answer, but it is the most commonly accepted one. It is subject to inaccurate data from reporting agencies, natural variables such as abnormal climatic events, and the lack of long-term historical data for the particular species (Hagler, 1995). It was very difficult for legislative bodies to set fishing limits. The uncertainties involved in estimating fish population led to abuse.”