SPECIAL FEATURE: ORIGINAL ARTICLE Social-ecological systems on walleye pollock under changing environment: Inter-disciplinary approach Straddling the line: cooperative and non-cooperative strategies for management of Bering Sea pollock Keith R. Criddle • James W. Strong Received: 17 June 2013 / Accepted: 31 October 2013 / Published online: 15 March 2014 Ó The Japanese Society of Fisheries Science 2014 Abstract The eastern Bering Sea fishery for pollock, Theragra chalcogramma, yields a first wholesale value over $1 billion; it is the premier US fishery. While there is general agreement that this fishery is managed under principles that foster sustainability, the stock is not wholly contained within the US Exclusive Economic Zone. Man- agement of straddling stocks can be highly contentious, particularly when, as is the case for pollock, the spatial distribution varies considerably. When the center of pol- lock abundance shifts to the northwest, an increased por- tion of the stock is exposed to harvest by vessels operating in the Russian Federation Exclusive Economic Zone. The lack of coordination in the management of this trans- boundary stock presents a risk that is not reflected in cur- rent management strategies. We use a multiple product/ multiple market bioeconomic model to characterize opti- mal cooperative and non-cooperative harvest management strategies from the perspective of US and Russian pollock fisheries under environmentally induced changes in pollock abundance and the distribution of that abundance. Keywords Sustainable fisheries  Straddling stock  Game theory Introduction Fluctuations in the abundance and distribution of exploited species reflect latent processes that govern intra- and inter- species dynamics, the conduct of fisheries, and the influ- ence of variations in abiotic factors. For example, statisti- cally significant intertemporal relationships have been observed between environmental factors and recruitment, growth, mortality, and the abundance of pollock. Corre- lated recruitment patterns across a suite of North Pacific species, including pollock, has been construed as evidence of environmental forcing [1]. Significant correlations have been reported for time series of eastern Bering Sea (EBS) pollock recruitment (and residuals of a Ricker spawner- recruit relationship) and 1-year lagged time series of annual air temperature, ice cover, and bottom temperature anom- alies [2]. Multi-annual variation in the spatial distribution of EBS pollock is related to avoidance of the cold pool, a persistent bottom water feature that develops on the EBS shelf as a function of sea ice extent [3]. Variations in the timing of sea ice retreat is hypothesized to cause oscillation between bottom-up and top-down control mechanisms as determinants of recruitment success [4]. This suggests that time series of recruitments will demonstrate long-period serial correlations reflective of multi-annual correlations in sea ice extent and the timing of sea ice retreat, and short- period serial correlations reflective of within-year rela- tionships between the springtime sea ice retreat and over- winter survival [5]. The center of distribution of sub-arctic species, including EBS pollock, has been shown to reflect a climate change signal superimposed on multiannual vari- ation in sea ice extent [6]. Even though EBS pollock is a subarctic species, complexities in control mechanisms are shown to reduce recruitment success when mean July– September sea surface temperatures exceed 8.5 °C[7]. This article is sponsored by the Fisheries Research Agency, Yokohama, Japan. K. R. Criddle (&)  J. W. Strong Fisheries Division, University of Alaska Fairbanks, 17101 Point Lena Loop Road, Juneau, AK 99801, USA e-mail: kcriddle@alaska.edu 123 Fish Sci (2014) 80:193–203 DOI 10.1007/s12562-014-0722-1 Author's personal copy