Decide on default years for benchmark calculations in forecast files

[kellijohnson-NOAA]

https://github.com/nwfsc-assess/PEPtools/blob/895f0a33d024c0742a7304bce910f1b5ca797e4e/examples/ss3_template_files/forecast.ss#L13

Every single model built by the NWFSC and SWFSC has time-varying catch, which will impact if we have zero values or year ranges here in the forecast file for benchmark calculations. Need to decide on what the default values should be for this forecast file.

[kellijohnson-NOAA]

This input row pertains to some of the derived quantities in the Report file, e.g., SSB_MSY.

[brianlangseth-NOAA]

Worthwhile to explore a retrospective like analysis of moving these values from 0 back to -5 for example to see effect each entry has on model output. @iantaylor-NOAA may explore with lingcod and @brianlangseth-NOAA may explore with quillback rockfish

[k-doering-NOAA]

Note that if there is no TV biology in the model, the ss3 team suggests setting 0 and 0 for beg and end bio inputs. This is because SD's can change due to an averaging effect (see nmfs-ost/ss3-doc#76 for full discussion). Only bio inputs matter, because the other inputs are not used to calculate SSB_unfished, which then propagates to other benchmarks.

[iantaylor-NOAA]

paper related to this topic:
Maunder, M.N., 2002. The relationship between fishing methods, fisheries management and the estimation of maximum sustainable yield. Fish and Fisheries, 3(4), pp.251-260. https://doi.org/10.1046/j.1467-2979.2002.00089.x

[k-doering-NOAA]

Worthwhile to explore a retrospective like analysis of moving these values from 0 back to -5 for example to see effect each entry has on model output. @iantaylor-NOAA may explore with lingcod and @brianlangseth-NOAA may explore with quillback rockfish

I did try this for a model with no TV anything, and it doesn't change values (as we would expect). Just wanted to clarify that it should only matter when using time varying parameters (be it blocks, param devs, etc.)

[brianlangseth-NOAA]

@k-doering-NOAA Great. Thanks for adding. Im curious about relF values and recruitment though too so may still try those with quillback (which is generally not time varying)