NOVA School of Science and Technology (FCT NOVA) is currently working on improving the models currently used to estimate fishing resources, which constitutes a very relevant work in the field of sustainability in order to ensure better management of natural resources.
Isabel Natário, assistant professor in the Department of Mathematics and researcher at the Center for Mathematics and Applications (CMA), recently explained to 90 Segundos de Ciência that the objective of the investigation is to improve the current preferential sampling process that leads to a skewed estimate of fishing resources along the Portuguese coast: “[Fishermen] will try to fish for the place where they know there is more fish, that is, the way of sampling is closely related to the abundance (…) and this has to be compensated after in the estimation models we do”, she explains.
The researcher's work consists precisely in developing mathematical models for estimating fish abundance that is closer to reality. The objective is that these results "allow us to manage these resources as carefully as possible, and as correctly as possible" she adds.
Learn more about this investigation in the words of the researcher herself in this episode of 90 Segundos de Ciência [content in Portuguese].