21st Regular Session of the Scientific Committee

SC21 will review progress on the ongoing refinement of the monitoring strategy for the skipjack tuna Management Procedure (paras 452-455, SC20 Summary Report). SC20 requested that the SSP conduct targeted analyses to:

a. Evaluate whether changes in the FAD closure duration (as adopted in CMM 2023-01) will affect the performance of the interim MP; 

b. Representativeness and appropriateness of candidate CPUEs for use in MP.

To improve the transparency and responsiveness of the monitoring strategy, SC20 recommended that in years without a stock assessment, the Scientific Committee could review the monitoring strategy and provide feedback through the Online Discussion Forum. Additionally, SC21 may review several other issues in Tables 1 and 2 of the WCPFC Skipjack Tuna Monitoring Strategy Report (Attachment 15, WCPFC21 Summary Report), including the performance of the MP with potential exceptional circumstances. The Commission also encouraged ongoing work to consider climate change impacts within the skipjack MP operating model grid (para 356, WCPFC21 Summary Report). 

Based on its review and findings, SC21 will provide recommendations to the Commission on the potential need to revise the current interim skipjack MP in CMM 2022-01.