Stock and risk assessments of albacore in the Indian Ocean based on ASPIC

An assessment for the Indian Ocean stock of albacore was conducted based on ASPIC. A time se-ries of catch (1950-2017 or 1979-2017) and that of standardized CPUE (longline ‘joint’) were used for the analysis. Convergence and reasonable results were obtained for the scenarios which assumed 1%/yr increase of catchability, and was regarded as reference case. According to the reference case, the stock status was es-timated to be in the green zone of Kobe plot. Kobe II (risk assessments) indicated that the risk of B and F exceeding MSY level is lower than 50% if future catch is up to 10% higher than current level. The results for the scenarios without increase of catchability were more optimistic.