Indian Ocean Bigeye Tuna Management Procedure Evaluation Update

• The most recent bigeye OMs and candidate MPs were presented at the MSE taskforce meeting (March 2021) and TCMP (June 2021).
• The bigeye Operating Models (OMs) and the MP evaluation process are at a reasonably mature stage, with a suite of potentially viable candidate MPs that all achieve current tuning objectives
• Given this relative state of maturity, we seek a discussion within the WPM on endorsement of the OMs and selection of a set of candidate MPs for adoption of a final MP within the IOTC structure
• We do, however, note that a revision of the length-at-age relationship for this species is to be presented at the WPTT which could have potential implications for the robustness of the current suite of OMs. We discuss this in the context of having a data and OM “guillotine” requirement (as agreed at WPM MSE taskforce 2021) and a well-defined process for handling exceptional circumstances.