Are Indian Ocean tuna populations assessed and managed at the appropriate spatial scale?  Brief review of the evidence and implications

Are Indian Ocean tuna populations assessed and managed at the appropriate spatial scale? Brief review of the evidence and implications

Year of publication 2013

Product type Meeting

Edition 1

Synopsis (short abstract) Tu species maged under the auspices of the Indian Ocean Tu Commission have generally been assumed (explicitly or implicitly) to be highly mobile and consist of a single panmictic spawning population for the purposes of stock assessment and magement. In this paper, we: i) briefly review evidence that questions this assumption (largely based on recent population genetics and tagging studies), ii) qualitatively discuss the implications of violating this assumption, and iii) outline some elements of a collaborative research plan to resolve these issues and mitigate the consequences of getting this assumption wrong. This paper is intended to stimulate discussion within the IOTC scientific community about the potential importance of population structure within the Indian Ocean and extent to which it should be considered a research and magement priority.

Statutory body / Meeting title Indian Ocean Tuna Commission (IOTC)

Meeting symbol IOTC-2013-WPTT15-13

Meeting Session Number 15

Language English