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We describe simple and effective methods for simulating the movement of a fishing fleet, the spatio-temporal allocation of effort, in the context of harvest policy evaluation. Vessel movements are simulated in a manner that can balance established seasonal fishing patterns with the influence of perceived local variations in abundance. In the longer term, the model adapts smoothly to changes in fleet size and price fluctuations in critical resources, such as fuel. Given an initial allocation of effort at a fine temporal (but coarse spatial) scale, as needed for projecting stock dynamics, a second phase assigns the effort at a finer spatial (but coarser temporal) scale for …