(Course) Fisheries data integration - a spatio-temporal SDM framework with the LGNB model

The LGNB model is essentially a state-space species distribution model (hence LGNB-SDM) that can integrate two major data sources used within fisheries science, namely fishery-dependent (opportunistic) and fishery-independent (survey) data. Each data source relies on different sampling designs, hampering therefore their integration in a unifying framework. Despite their multiple pitfalls, the two data source provide complementary information which could greatly improve our understading of a species' spatio-temporal dynamics, and ultimately guide better fisheries management practices. The LGNB-SDM was thus developed with the main goal to bridge the gap between the two data sources. Within the LGNB-SDM framework,the relative bias contribution of a species' abundance estimator is filtered out with respect to each data source, providing as such improved abundance estimates and knowledge on it’s spatial distribution.