Math 312: Bifurcations and fishing

Problem 1. Suppose that the population N (t) of fish (in tens of thousands) at time t (in
years) in Mille Lacs lake is governed by the logistic equation
 
N
Ṅ = .25 N 1 − .
4

The Mille Lacs Walleye Preservation Society (MLWPS) would like to sell fishing licenses.
Each license allows an angler to catch 20 fish over the course of the year.

a) Modify the logistic model above to include the effect on fish population resulting from
the sale of L fishing licenses per year.

b) The MLWPS is worried about overfishing. They approach Macalester college to ask for
advice about how many fishing licenses L they should sell in a year. Obviously, MLWPS
would like to sell as many licenses as possible, but they also would like to preserve the Mille
Lacs fish population. What is your recommendation to MLWPS?

c) An astute member of MLWPS points out that fishing is seasonal. Therefore it might
be better to model the harvesting of fish with a periodic term (1 + sin 2πt) L. Write down
a differential equation for N using this periodic harvesting. Does your recommendation to
MLWPS change with this new type of harvesting?