A management procedure (MP) is a pre-agreed set of rules that can specify changes to the total allowable catch (TAC) based on updated monitoring data. From 2002 to 2011, the CCSBT conducted extensive work to develop an MP in order to guide its global TAC setting process for southern bluefin tuna. The CCSBT tested a variety of candidate MPs with the aid of an operating model of the fishery that simulated the characteristics of the SBT stock and fishery. The candidate MPs were tested against a range of uncertainties so that a robust procedure could be identified. The final MP, known as the “Bali Procedure”, was recommended by the CCSBT’s Scientific Committee in July 2011. Parameters of the recommended decision rule could be adjusted to set different time horizons for rebuilding, and to constrain the maximum TAC changes allowed every time the TAC is updated. A range of options was presented to CCSBT’s Extended Commission.

The Extended Commission adopted the Bali Procedure and the following associated management parameters as its MP at the CCSBT’s eighteenth annual meeting in October 2011:

• The MP is tuned to a 70% probability of rebuilding the stock to the interim rebuilding target reference point of 20% of the original spawning stock biomass by 2035;
• The minimum TAC change (increase or decrease) is 100 tonnes;
• The maximum TAC change (increase or decrease) is 3,000 tonnes;
• The TAC will be set for three-year periods, subject to paragraph 7 of the Resolution on Adoption of a Management Procedure (PDF 33Kb); and
• The national allocation of the TAC within each three-year period will be apportioned according to the Resolution on the Allocation of the Global Total Allowable Catch (PDF 38Kb).

The MP will be used to guide the setting of the global SBT TAC for 2012 and beyond. For the second (2015-2017) and subsequent three-year TAC setting periods, there will be a one year lag between TAC calculation by the MP and implementation of that TAC (i.e. the 2015-2017 TAC will be calculated in 2013).

The CCSBT also adopted the meta-rule process described in Attachment 10 of the Report of the 15th Meeting of the Scientific Committee (PDF 4,908Kb) as the method for dealing with exceptional circumstances in the SBT fishery. The meta-rule process describes: (1) the process to determine whether exceptional circumstances exist; (2) the process for action; and (3) the principles for action.