Spatial ecology, optimal control and game theoretical fishing problems

TL;DR

This paper analyzes optimal fishing strategies and Nash equilibria in resource harvesting using a mathematical model, providing theoretical insights and numerical simulations to address overfishing and competitive resource management.

Contribution

It offers a detailed mathematical analysis of optimal and equilibrium fishing strategies within a logistic-diffusive model, including existence proofs and qualitative characterizations.

Findings

Characterization of optimal strategies for single-player fishing models.

Existence of Nash equilibria in multi-player fishing games.

Numerical simulations illustrating theoretical results.

Abstract

Of paramount importance in both ecological systems and economic policies are the problems of harvesting of natural resources. A paradigmatic situation where this question is raised is that of fishing strategies. Indeed, overfishing is a well-known problem in the management of live-stocks, as being too greedy may lead to an overall dramatic depletion of the population we are harvesting. A closely related topic is that of Nash equilibria in the context of fishing policies. Namely, two players being in competition for the same pool of resources, is it possible for them to find an equilibrium situation? The goal of this paper is to provide a detailed analysis of these two queries (\emph{i.e} optimal fishing strategies for single-player models and study of Nash equilibria for multiple players games) by using a basic yet instructive mathematical model, the logistic-diffusive equation. In this framework, the underlying model simply reads $-\mu\Delta \theta=\theta(K(x)-\alpha(x)-\theta)$ where $K$ accounts for natural resources, $\theta$ for the density of the population that is being harvested and $\alpha=\alpha(x)$ encodes either the single player fishing strategy or, when dealing with Nash equilibria, a combination of the fishing strategies of both players. This article consists of two main parts. The first one gives a very fine characterisation of the optimisers for the single-player game. In the case where two players are involved, we aim at finding a Nash equilibrium. We prove the existence of Nash equilibria in several different regimes \textcolor{black}{and investigate several related qualitative queries}.Our study is completed by a variety of numerical simulations that illustrate our results and allow us to formulate open questions and conjectures.