Uncertainty poses a major challenge to the management and utilisation of marine fish resources. Significant efforts are made by fishing nations to estimate numbers and condition of exploited fish stocks, but assessments frequently bring unexpected results that range from relatively small shifts from former prognoses to changes of a significant and potentially detrimental magnitude. Such errors may be due to biased calculations or unaccounted causes of mortality, but can also stem from unforeseen changes in fish distribution or behaviour which remain unaccounted for.

To meet this challenge, SARDI and the University of Iceland aim to work together towards a solution that involves construction of a modeling environment, a “Multiverse”, which is a 3D modelled and data assimilated world of ocean physics and the living organism that can be evaluated with hindcasts and used to produce short- and long-term forecasts, as well as to test and answer key questions on climate change and fisheries monitoring/management.

Such an approach may be a suitable method for integrating the diverse data sets currently being proposed to be collected as part of a large-scale science program to explore mining exploration (and subsequent impacts) in the Great Australian Bight (GAB).

The collaboration will benefit from the complementary nature of the research groups from the highly data rich region of the North Atlantic to the relatively data poor environment of the GAB. The collaboration will facilitate discussion around the concept and potential for its application in an Australian context.