Indian Ocean Yellowfin Tuna Management Procedure Evaluation Update

• No updates to the IOTC yellowfin Management Procedure (MP) evaluation project have been undertaken since the last WPM given problems in the current Operating Model (OM) which are closely associated with the problems encountered in the yellowfin stock assessment model.
• The TCMP (June 2021) agreed to defer discussions on the yellowfin MP evaluation given the updated yellowfin stock assessment due in 2021 which should provide the basis for the updated OM for yellowfin.
• Phase 3 of the current yellowfin tuna MP evaluation project ended in June 2021, and funding has been secured from the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade for the next phase of the yellowfin MP evaluation to June 2023.
• To enable progress during the next phase of this project, options to progress the development of the yellowfin tuna OM, given the possible outcomes from the 2021 yellowfin stock assessment are defined.