Managing international tuna stocks via the management procedure approach: southern bluefin tuna example.

HILLARY, R; PREECE, A.; DAVIES, C.R.; KUROTA, H.; SAKAI, O.; ITOH, T.; PARMA, A.M.; BUTTERWORTH, D.S.; IANELLI, J.; BRANCH, T. A.

Management Science in Fisheries: An Introduction to Simulation-based Methods

Raylor & Francis

Lugar: Londres; Año: 2015; p. 147 - 162

There is considerable international concern and scientific debate about the current state and future of tuna stocks worldwide, and the capacity of Regional Fisheries Management Organizations to manage the associated fisheries effectively. The Commission for the Conservation of Southern Bluefin Tuna (CCSBT) has adopted a fully evaluated Management Procedure (MP) for the depleted southern bluefin tuna (Thunnus maccoyii) stock. The MP uses abundance indices for both the juvenile and adult populations in a unique hybrid structure with both model-based and empirical elements. The total allowable catch, as predicted by the HCR, is adjusted every three years and the HCR parameters were tuned so as to be able to meet the rebuilding targets agreed by CCSBT. The MP adopted was chosen from a subset of candidate MPs selected following extensive simulation testing. This involved first selecting a wide range of plausible scenarios for stock status and input data, ranging from pessimistic to optimistic, against which the alternative candidate MPs were tested to ensure that they were robust to important uncertainties. This is the first time that a comprehensively evaluated MP has been adopted for an internationally managed tuna stock.