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Fisheries scientists and technicians from most of the SPC island membership converged on Noumea this week to learn more about the way that SPC’s Oceanic Fisheries Programme is assessing their shared tuna stocks, and to suggest ways in which OFP outputs could be directed even more usefully in helping them to answer the questions asked by Pacific Island tuna fishery decision-makers.

While purse seining and skipjack tuna are the critical species for many of the equatorial Pacific Island countries, south Pacific albacore tuna is the key species for many of those south Pacific Island countries like Niue. Niue and other members of subregional groups such as Te Vaka Moana have been concerned at the recent expansion of fishing activity in the region on albacore tuna and are looking at ways to strengthen the management arrangements.

In the first stock-wide study of tuna growth, scientists at SPC have discovered that male South Pacific albacore (Thunnus alalunga) grow larger than females, and that albacore in the central Pacific grow larger than those in the west.

Published in the journal PLoS ONE, the research article is authored by scientists from the Secretariat of the Pacific Community and Australia’s CSIRO Marine and Atmospheric Research.

The study was made possible by the dedication and significant efforts from the many fisheries observers, port samplers, fishers and scientists who participated in the collection of over 3000 otoliths (ear bones) and other biological samples from albacore across the South Pacific Ocean, from the east coast of Australia to Pitcairn Islands.

Scientists at SPC have been using the MULTIFAN-CL software for over ten years to assess the status of tuna and tuna-related species in the Western and Central Pacific Ocean. SPC scientist Nick Davies, along with the chief developer Dave Fournier of Otter Research Limited, has just released an updated version of the software that allows for faster and more efficient analysis of management options. The model also has new features so that it can include 300,000+ tags released in SPC’s highly successful Pacific Tuna Tagging Programme.

The Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC) is currently conducting a region-wide tuna tagging project to collect critical information for the assessment of these important resources.

Tagging consists of catching tunas and deploying conventional (plastic dart tags inserted into the dorsal musculature) or electronic tags (surgically implanted into the body cavity) before releasing them in the wild. When fishermen find a tagged tuna, information concerning the recovery is forwarded to SPC.

The specific objectives of this research are to obtain information on the growth, movements, natural mortality and fishing mortality of the tuna, information·which is required to estimate the status of the stocks and the impacts of fishing.

Read more on the Tuna Tagging Website...