22nd Regular Session of the Scientific Committee

SC22 will review indicators for stocks without new stock assessments, to monitor recent changes in fisheries and to provide supporting context for ongoing conservation and management. The review will help identify emerging trends, highlight data gaps, and inform priorities for future research and assessment work. SC22 will also review the indicator analyses and provide comments and questions to guide further improvements.

• An indicator paper provides empirical information on recent fishery patterns for key target tuna species, skipjack, bigeye, yellowfin, and South Pacific albacore, in years when no stock assessment is conducted. It compiles indicators such as total catch by gear, nominal CPUE trends (noting the limitation of nominal CPUE for representing abundance trends), spatial distribution of catch and effort, and size composition to describe recent developments in the fisheries. It also includes short-term projections, which are considered the most informative component for near-term stock outlooks. These indicators track trends over time but do not estimate the most current stock status.