Skipjack Tuna (Katsuwonis pelamis) |
Thursday, 23 September 2010 14:57 |
Skipjack are caught mainly in equatorial waters but also in the temperate North Pacific by pole and line, artisanal mixed-gear and purse seine fisheries. The catch of skipjack in the western and central Pacific in 2009 (~1.7 million t) was the highest on record. Skipjack tuna stocks in the western and central Pacific Ocean were last assessed in July 2010 using data through 2009.
The assessment concluded that overfishing of skipjack is not occurring, nor is the stock in an overfished state, with depletion to 60% of the original stock biomass. Recruitment peaked in 2004-2006, and previous periods of high recruitment have been followed by periods of high biomass. However, biomass in recent years has been constrained by higher catches and is currently lower than previously observed. Methodological advances applied in the latest assessment included re-definition of fisheries and the model’s spatial structure, updated Japanese tagging data from southern areas, and improved standardisation of the Japanese distant-water pole and line fishery’s catch rates.
Full Document: Skipjack Tuna Assessment
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