Nunavik Ecosystem

Challenge

Nunavik is a remote area in Canada facing unique food security challenges. Residents rely heavily on fishing for daily food needs. As a source of economic growth, Nunavik is developing commercial fisheries. Industrial fishing is thought to affect the ecosystem via changing the biomass of species. The objective was to understand the impacts of these fisheries on local communities dependent on fishing for food.

Solution

A simulation model was built in AnyLogic using an agent-based approach to mimic the daily subsistence activities of Nunavik residents.

The community is divided into households, and each household needs to sustain necessary food for its members through several means:

• Fishing (in households that have a person who can fish)
• Buying from the market
• Asking for food from relatives
• Getting food from a community freezer

The income for each household is taken into consideration. The effect of industrial fisheries on fish biomass is taken from another software called Ecosim and applied in the model. This way, the simulation shows how changes in biomass directly affect household capabilities of securing daily food necessities.

Outcome

Through providing the user with the capability of changing all input parameters via an Excel sheet, many scenarios were investigated. The model showed the percentage of households that were food insecure at the end of a year when taking into consideration the changing biomass due to commercial fisheries.

These results helped set guidelines for efforts that should be put forward by authorities and the community to reduce negative effects on food security.

Project Features

• Industry: Fishing
• Model: Agent-Based
• Duration: 1 week