Stock assessment of skipjack tuna in the western and central Pacific Ocean (25July) - Rev.02. 2019. M. T. Vincent, G. M. Pilling, J. Hampton.

Executive Summary

This paper describes the 2019 stock assessment of skipjack tuna Katsuwonus pelamis in the western and central Pacific Ocean. An additional three years of data were available since the previous assessment in 2016, and the model extends through to the end of 2018. New developments to the stock assessment including addressing the recommendations of the 2016 stock assessment report (McKechnie et al., 2016), revision and incorporation of new data sources such as maturity-at-length, creation of an additional spatial structure, exploration of model uncertainty, and improving the diagnostics of previous assessments.