Biological reference points (BRPs) - values that represent the state of a fishery or
population - are commonly used to guide management decisions. BRPs are expressed as a
function of fishing mortality and are derived from models that describe the population
dynamics of a resource. These models include dynamic pool, spawner-recruit and
production models. Unfortunately, in the absence of long-term fisheries data, such as
abundance indices and catches-at-age, it is only dynamic pool models, usually known as
yield-per-recruit and spawner biomass-per-recruit models, that are known with any degree
of certainty. BRPs that have been proposed in the literature have been calculated for
temperate demersal marine species with life-history characteristics that include high
fecundity, pelagic spawning and little or no parental care. In contrast, cichlids have
low fecundities and exhibit varying levels of parental care ranging from guarding to
mouthbrooding. Cichlid specific BRPs, calculated with combinations of two spawner-recruit
relationships within deterministic and stochastic frameworks, were shown to be highly
dependent on the degree of density-dependence in the spawner-recruit relationship.
Overall, cichlid specific BRPs were similar to than [sic] temperate groundfish species
and it is suggested that fishing mortality be maintained at no more than that required to
reduce spawner biomass-per-recruit to 40% of pristine levels if the form of the spawner-recruit
relationship is unknown. If a Beverton-Holt spanwer-recruit relationship is assumed, a
biologically plausible relationship given cichlid life-histories, then it is suggested
that spawner biomass-per-recruit is not reduced below 50% of unfished levels.