Status of the MSE work

• The reference operating model for the Indian Ocean swordfish stock has been developed over the last three years and has been endorsed by the IOTC scientific committee. The OM was developed based on the 2020 WPB SS3 assessment, and covered the dynamics of the swordfish until the year 2018. This OM was updated to the year 2023 by projecting the stock forward based on the reported catches for 2019, 2020 and 2021 and assuming a 2022 catch at the 2021 level. A comparison of the OM with the output of the new 2023 stock assessment shows that the OM remains appropriate to describe the dynamics of the Indian Ocean swordfish stock, as well as its current status.
• Further developments to the swordfish MSE included the development and application of two types of candidate MPs, one model-based and one data-based, and the tuning of these MPs (i.e. defining the MP parameters that achieve a certain management goal on average) for a range of management objectives over the next 11 to 15 years.
• The main feedback priority for the TCMP-07 is to get agreement on the range of proposed MPs to be fully tested, as well as on the current management objectives to be achieved for the tuning procedure.