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FLR: An Open-Source Framework for the

Evaluation and Development of Management Strategies

L.T. Kell, I. Mosqueira, P. Grosjean, J-M. Fromentin, D. Garcia, R. Hillary,  E. Jardim, S. Mardle, M. Pastoors, J.

J. Poos, F. Scott and R. Scott

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What is FLR?What is FLR?

• Fisheries Library in R• Provides extensible toolbox for Management

Strategy Evaluation (MSE)• For example:

– fit stock-recruit relationships and model biological stocks

– model fleet dynamics (including economics)– simulate management procedures (harvest control

rules)– Not just stock assessments (XSA, ICA etc.)– Etc…

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Philosophy of FLRPhilosophy of FLR

• Open source license (GPL): you can modify a copy of the code, but you must distribute it under the same license.

• Collaborative: Discussions are open (mailing list), website is editable, external review is encouraged

• Breaking the barrier between user and developer

• Improves inter-disciplinary dialogue

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Design principlesDesign principles

• Object Oriented Programming• Different elements of system are treated as

“objects”, e.g. stocks, fleets• Each object stores data and has functions that

act on that data• Objects can be linked together to create

simulations • Lego blocks• Learning curve: trade-off between flexibility and

simplicity• Uses R – inbuilt graphical and statistical routines

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Example MSEExample MSE

6 0

10

20

30

40

z

1 2 3 4 5

1.0

1.5

2.0

2.5

3.0

3.5

4.0

Four-Dimensional Contour PlotBlack contour lines are values of zz

x

y

1986 1988 1990 1992 1994 1996

2

3

4

5

Cohort

Ag

e

males

1986 1988 1990 1992 1994 1996

2

4

6

8

10

Cohort

Ag

e

females

Standardized catch proportion at age for Plaice in IV

year

age

5

10

15

1960 1970 1980 1990 2000

female

1960 1970 1980 1990 2000

male

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The FLR initiativeThe FLR initiative

• http://flr-project.org

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The FLR initiativeThe FLR initiative

• Source code under version control (CVS)

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The FLR initiativeThe FLR initiative

• Packages available for installation

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The FLR initiativeThe FLR initiative

• Main package: FLCore– Main classes and functions

• Collection of secondary packages– FLAssess– FLEDA

• What’s in a package?– R code for all classes, methods and functions– Help pages for each of them– Examples and datasets– Test scripts

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The FLR initiativeThe FLR initiative

• Tutorials and documentation

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The FLR initiativeThe FLR initiative

• Work funded by a number of EU projects (FEMS, COMMIT, EFIMAS, Fisboat, …)

• Core team– Maintenance & development of main

packages– Release of official versions– Testing of submitted packages

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In briefIn brief

• Openness & collaboration• Lingua franca• Bridging the gap between users and

developers• Learning and working with other

disciplines• http://flr-project.org

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`̀ Enough talking!

The only way to learn is to get your hands

dirty…

Now…Now…

• Install R• Install FLR libraries• Go to the WIKI: http://flr-project.org• Courses -> UNCOVER ->