The present paper discusses the dynamics and optimal harvesting of an intraguild prey-predator fishery model by incorporating the nonlinear Michaelis-Menten type of harvesting in predator. To our knowledge, there is limited literature working on Michaelis-Menten type of harvesting in a three species intraguild model with variable carrying capacity. The carrying capacity is proportional to the density of biotic resource. The existence of the possible equilibria has been studied along with the stability criteria. We consider the impact of predator fish harvesting as the bifurcation parameter to analyze the long time behavior of the proposed system. From the economic perspective, bionomic equilibrium of the system is studied and optimal harvesting policy is derived with the assistance of Pontryagin Maximum Principle. Finally, numerical results are presented to verify our analytical results. It is shown that in the bifurcation diagrams, the system can exhibit transcritical and Hopf bifurcations in the neighborhood of coexistence equilibrium at low and relatively high level of predator harvesting respectively. Interestingly, the system enters to a bistable region where both the coexistence and predator-free equilibria can be stable depending on the initial values. This bistable behavior might be novel to the existing literature that studied intraguild models with variable carrying capacity. The objective of this study is to derive the optimal threshold for the predator harvesting that gives maximum financial profit while sustaining the fishery resources.
The present paper studies a predator-prey fishery model which incorporates the independent harvesting strategies and nonlinear impact of an anthropogenic toxicant. Both fish populations are harvested with different harvesting efforts, and the cases for the presence and non-presence of harvesting effort are discussed. The prey fish population is assumed to be infected by the toxicant directly which causes indirect infection to predator fish population through the feeding process. Each equilibrium of the proposed system is examined by analyzing the respective local stability properties. Dynamical behavior and bifurcations are studied with the assistance of threshold conditions influencing the persistence and extinction of both predator and prey. Bionomic equilibrium solutions for three possible cases are investigated with certain restrictions. Optimal harvesting policy is explored by utilizing the Pontryagin's Maximum Principle to optimize the profit while maintaining the sustainability of the marine ecosystem. Bifurcation analysis showed that the harvesting parameters are the key elements causing fishery extinction. Numerical simulations of bionomic and optimal equilibrium solutions showed that the presence of toxicant has a detrimental effect on the fish populations.