- Dona Paula, Goa, India.
- +91-0832- 2450327
- iiosc2020[at]nio[dot]org
Abstract Submission No. | ABS-2022-01-0016 |
Title of Abstract | The role of marine environmental sciences to inform management of tuna fisheries by the Indian Ocean Tuna Commission (IOTC) |
Authors | Francis Marsac*, Paul de Bruyn |
Organisation | IRD |
Address | SFA, Espace Building, Po Box 449 Victoria, Mahe, Seychelles Pincode: 248 Mobile: 2482587678 E-mail: francis.marsac@ird.fr |
Country | Seychelles |
Presentation | Oral |
Abstract | The Indian Ocean Tuna Commission (IOTC) is an regional organization composed of 31 contracting parties with the mandate to manage tuna stocks and fisheries in the Indian Ocean and ensure their sustainability. The large migratory nature of tuna populations requires management measures to be discussed and implemented at the scale of the ocean. All management decisions are required to be science-based, which stresses the key role of the Scientific Committee (SC), an advisory body of the IOTC Commission. The SC advises and reviews tuna-related research activities (including ecosystem effects of fishing) and considers trends in the oceanic environment to rationalize the outcomes in terms of recommendations to be discussed and (sometimes) translated into management measures by the Commission. Fishery data are the bulk of the information used for the assessment of resources, however it is widely recognized that environmental conditions interacting with fishing pressure can drive the productivity of a fish stock towards a variety of diverse trajectories. In the Indian Ocean, the monsoon-driven seasonal signal influences the spatial distribution of several fisheries. The inter-annual fluctuations associated to Dipole/ENSO events also drive productivity patterns at the base of the food chain which propagate to the higher levels of the ecosystem. In this presentation, we review the main environmental stressors on the tuna fishery and show how these features are taken into consideration to inform the management advice at the IOTC. We also present a web-based platform to be developed by the IOTC to inform the public and stakeholders on the status and trends of the environmental conditions which affect tuna fisheries in the Indian Ocean. |