Scientific Reports

Description

Management strategies include monitoring, stock assessment, harvest control rules, reference points and management actions. The International Seafood Sustainability Foundation convened a workshop to review the current status of the adoption of these elements into the decision-making process by five the Tuna RFMOs and to make recommendations for harmonizing and facilitating the process among RFMOs. Of the five RFMOs, CCSBT has formally adopted a management strategy (management procedure) for decision-making. The other four RFMOs are making substantial progress to identify and test key elements of management strategies, such as reference points (limit and target) and harvest control rules. This work is being done primarily by the RFMO science bodies, sometimes without a formal Commission mandate. The workshop reports on key issues that should be kept in mind when developing and testing management strategies: Data and models, the treatment of FMSY as a target or a limit, testing of the strategy, and implementation. The workshop concluded that management strategies have worked quite well elsewhere in fisheries, and that there is no technical constraint to advance them in the tuna RFMOs. This could be done in many cases with relatively simple, existing tools. The report contains specific recommendations on limit and target reference points, harvest control rules, and other considerations for management strategy evaluations. A glossary of terms is also included.