Considering that the creation of marine reserves is one potential solution to the over exploitation of marine life and different population age implies different reproduction as well as survival capacities, we propose an age-structured predator-prey model for fishery resource with reserve area where fishing is strictly prohibited, and then consider the corresponding optimal harvesting problem where the objective functional represents the total economic benefits obtained from the harvesting process. First, the existence and uniqueness of the solution of the model are proved by means of the fixed point theorem. Then, the optimality conditions for achieving the optimal harvesting policy are given by solving the extremum point of the cost functional. Furthermore, the existence of a unique optimal harvesting strategy is demonstrated with the use of Ekeland's Principle. Finally, the numerical simulations indicate that the creation of marine reserves is indeed conducive to the recovery of fishery resources, increasing fish abundance and protecting biodiversity as well as ecosystem structure.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.