Catch levels

At its Fourteenth annual meeting the CCSBT agreed to a total allowable catch (TAC) for 2007-2009 of 11,810 tonnes, which is the reduced level agreed in 2006. The TAC set in 2006 will only be reviewed before 2009 if exceptional circumstances emerge in relation to the stock. The allocated of the TAC amongst Members, Cooperating Non-Members and Observers are specified below:-

Members
The allocations below are fixed to 2011 for Japan and to 2009 for other Members.

Cooperating Non-Members and Observers
The allocations amongst Cooperating Non-Members has only been set for 2008.

Furthermore, to contribute to the recovery of the SBT stock, Taiwan and the Republic of Korea undertook to maintain their actual catch below 1,000 tonnes for a minimum of 3 years.  This will result in an actual catch level below 11,530 tonnes for a 3 year period.

More complete information on the total catch and its allocation is provided in paragraphs 131 to 140 of the CCSBT14 Report (PDF 1424Kb).

Trade Management

The CCSBT implemented a Trade Information Scheme (PDF 1635Kb) (TIS) on 1 June 2000 to collect more accurate and comprehensive data on SBT fishing through monitoring trade. The TIS also operates to deter Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated (IUU) fishing by effectively denying access to markets for SBT.

The core of the TIS is the provision for all Members and Cooperating Non-Members of the CCSBT to maintain requirements for all imports of SBT to be accompanied by a completed CCSBT Statistical Document. The Document must be endorsed by an authorised competent authority in the exporting country and includes extensive details of the shipment such as name of fishing vessel, gear type, area of catch, dates, etc. Shipments not accompanied by this form must be denied entry by the Member country. Completed forms are lodged with the CCSBT Secretariat and are used to maintain a database for monitoring catches and trade. Reconciliation of these forms is conducted against electronic lists of exports submitted by CCSBT Members and Cooperating Non-Members.

The Scheme requires the Document to include the country of destination and to set minimum standards for completion of TIS documents. The requirement to include destination country was made in the light of markets for SBT developing outside CCSBT Members. The CCSBT is also seeking the Cooperation of Non-Member importing countries with the TIS aims. The United States has passed domestic legislation to recognise CCSBT documents with effect from 1 July 2005, which brings trade to the United States under the provisions of the CCSBT Scheme.

See the Data section of this website for the published subset of TIS data.

Action Plan

In the recent past, significant and increasing volumes of SBT were being taken by flag of convenience vessels. This has been of major concern to the CCSBT where the stock needs to be carefully managed and where the actions of these vessels undermines the conservation measures already taken by Members. The Commission has sought the cooperation of these countries in supporting its management and conservation measures. They have also been advised that if cooperation is not forthcoming, the Commission will consider measures, including trade restrictive measures, to be taken against them in accordance with the Action Plan (PDF 7Kb)

Management Procedure

An initial meeting was held to steer the Commission's course on a management strategy in May 2000 in Tokyo, Japan. The Commission agreed that a procedure should be developed as a set of rules, agreed in advance, to dictate how a Total Allowable Catch for the SBT fishery would be adjusted as data becomes available. The management procedure will have three components: (1) a list of data as inputs, (2) an algorithm or model to process the data and (3) rules to translate the algorithm output into a Total Allowable Catch.

A management procedure workshop (PDF 162Kb) was held on 3-8 March 2002 in Tokyo, which determined the structure of the operating models for the SBT fishery; identified five fisheries and the data sets required for conditioning of the model; agreed on the principles for selecting candidate management procedures; and agreed on the initial identification of objectives and related performance measures (maximizing catches, safeguarding the resource, minimising inter-annual variation in catch and effort).

The development of the management procedure was continued at a series of meetings (Third Meeting of the Stock Assessment Group (PDF 2077Kb), Second Meeting of the Management Procedure Workshop (PDF 1071Kb), Fourth Meeting of the Stock Assessment Group (PDF 727Kb), Third Meeting of the Management Procedure Workshop (PDF 1322Kb) and Fifth Meeting of the Stock Assessment Group (PDF 410Kb)). The outcomes of these meetings were discussed at a Special Meeting of the CCSBT (PDF 211Kb) in April 2004.

Final development of the management procedure was concluded at the Fourth Meeting of the Management Procedure Workshop (PDF 243Kb) in May 2005 and the Sixth Meeting of the Stock Assessment Group (PDF 906Kb) in September 2005. The Workshop’s recommendations were reviewed by the CCSBT Scientific Committee and a final decision made at CCSBT12 (PDF 1153Kb) in October 2005.

The selected management procedure is described at Attachment 6 of the Report of the Tenth Meeting of the Scientific Committee (PDF 681Kb).

Reviews of SBT farming and market data during 2006 suggest that southern bluefin tuna catches may have been substantially under-reported over the past 10-20 years. The impact of unreported catches on the estimates of past total catch and CPUE meant that it was not possible to proceed with the current Management Procedure, and that the Management Procedure needs to be re-evaluated.

Stock Assessment

SBT stock status indicators were reviewed at the 12th meeting of the CCSBT Scientific Committee in 2007. The indicators continue to support previous evidence for poor recruitment in the 2000 and 2001 year class, and ongoing recruitment below the 1994-1998 levels. The size distribution in the New Zealand LL fishery and the Japanese LL fishery continue to indicate poor 1999, 2000, 2001 and 2002 recruitments, and the aerial spotting survey is consistent with a reduction in average recruitment below the 1994-1998 levels. The high fishing mortality rate estimates for age 3 and 4 from recent tagging are also consistent with low recruitments in these years. Trends in year class strength in the Japanese LL fleet show poor strength of the 2000, 2001 and 2002 year classes, but indicate the 2003 year class may be similar in size to the average between 1980 and 1999. However, this indicator could be biased by catch anomalies as in the case of the 2000-2002 year classes. Scientific Research Programme tag returns may suggest declining recruitment between 1999 and 2003. The Great Australian Bight aerial survey indicates poor recruitment through to 2004.

In 2006 the SBT Operating Model was used to evaluate a range of possible past under-reported catch scenarios, to investigate the potential effect of these scenarios on current understanding of the state of the SBT stock. The Operating Model was not updated in 2007, so these conclusions are based on the 2006 results. The scenario evaluation results were consistent with the 2005 assessment of the overall stock status and suggest the SBT spawning biomass is at a low fraction of its original biomass and well below the 1980 level, as well as below the level that could produce maximum sustainable yield. Recruitments in the last decade are estimated to be well below the levels in the period 1950-1980. All scenarios suggest that recruitment in the 1990s fluctuated with no overall trend. Analysis of several independent fishery indicators indicate low recruitments in 2000, 2001 and 2002, and the scenarios suggest low recruitment in 2002 and 2003, although the low estimates of 2003 year class strength is inconsistent with the Japanese length frequency data from 2006.

The primary implication of the higher catch levels in the scenarios evaluated in 2006, compared to the assumed catch history used in the 2005 assessment, is that estimated total spawning stock size is more than double that assessed at the 2005 meeting. Nonetheless, in the scenarios considered, future total catches of 14,925t (the total allocated TAC in 2006) would result, on average, in a short-term decline followed by generally stable but not recovering spawning biomass. Any future catch over 14,925t poses very serious threats to the stock. Rebuilding the spawning biomass requires catch reductions to below 14,925t under all the scenarios considered. In 2006 the Commission set a global TAC of 11,810t per year for the period 2007–2009.

List of Approved Vessels

At its annual meeting in October 2003, the CCSBT agreed to a resolution to establish a list of vessels over 24 metres in length (Resolution on Illegal, Unregulated and Unreported Fishing (IUU) and Establishment of a CCSBT Record of Vessels over 24 meters Authorized to Fish for Southern Bluefin Tuna) (PDF 141Kb), which are approved to fish for SBT.

At its annual meeting in October 2004, the CCSBT amended the resolution (PDF 41Kb) to remove the 24 metre threshold with effect from 1 July 2005. The purpose of the amendment was to strengthen the vessel list as a fishery management measure by extending coverage to small longliners, which are fishing outside the CCSBT’s management and conservation objectives.

The list includes only vessels from CCSBT Members and Cooperating Non-Members and is provided at the CCSBT Authorised Vessel List page of this web site.

Members and cooperating non-members will not allow the import of SBT caught by large scale fishing vessels not on the list.

New Monitoring, Control and Surveillance Measures

The CCSBT has recognised the critical importance of adopting and fully implementing at the earliest possible time an integrated package of compliance measures which would ensure the elimination of unreported catch and provide accurate data as a basis for proper stock assessment. At its Thirteenth annual meeting, the CCSBT adopted draft resolutions on the following compliance measures and continuing work will be undertaken towards refining and implementing these measures:

• A catch documentation scheme;

• A vessel monitoring system; and

• Regulation of transhipments by large scale fishing vessels.