Chair Report of the 3rd Management procedures dialogue

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The 3rd Session of the Indian Ocean Tuna Commission Management Procedures Dialogue (MPD03) was held in La Reunion, France, on 21st May 2016, co-chaired by Dr Ahmed Mohammed Al-Mazroui, chair of IOTC, and Dr Hilario Murua, chair of the SC of IOTC. A total of 57 delegates from 21 Contracting Parties of the Commission, 2 delegates from 1 Cooperating Non-Contracting Party and 12 Observers (including 4 invited experts) attended the session.
• The MPD discussed the first set of results on the evaluation of Management Procedures (MP) for Indian Ocean albacore and skipjack tuna, and preliminary results for yellowfin and bigeye.
• The MPD considered that given the technical nature of the management procedure approach, the use of consistent terminology would help ensure all partners were able to contribute to the dialogue.
• The MPD suggested that management objectives could include those related to economic and social criteria.
• The evaluation of certain management objectives, e.g. spatially explicit ones, might require an extension of the existing models. Identifying this was an important component of the MPD process.
• The importance of good information was recognized by MPD. Management Procedures still depend on data such as Catch Per Unit Effort (CPUE) to provide robust advice.
• The MPD noted that the multispecies nature of tropical tuna fisheries will need to be addressed within further developments of the work.
• The Secretariat was encouraged to seek funding to continue the important work on yellowfin and bigeye tuna Management Procedures.
• The MPD provided feedback and suggestions to SC including:
• a clear description of the underlying decision rule to be presented to managers prior to any results
from that management procedure.
• the key assumptions within specific Management Procedures should be clarified, and potential
challenges that might arise should be highlighted.
• presentation of the output performance indicators for management procedures using the Kobe plot
(SB/SBMSY and F/FMSY) was welcomed, and further refinement of that figure should be undertaken
for future dialogues.
• The usefulness of the ability of the scientists to respond rapidly to the requests for additional information
made during the 3rd MPD was noted, and such an interactive presentation of results, would be welcomed at
future dialogues.
• The dialogue between scientists and managers in developing Management Procedures was felt to be highly
important and continuation and enhancement of the process was strongly encouraged. The process should continue to move from capacity building to decision making, although capacity building should be maintained in parallel.