Assessment of skipjack, Katsuwonus pelamis (Linnaeus 1758) : and baitfish resources and the potentials for fisheries development in the tropical central and western Pacific

Abstract

The documentation presented begins with descriptions of the design and implementation of Papua New Guinea's first tuna fisheries research programme. The results from this programme enabled assessments of the stocks of the exploitable tuna species in Papua New Guinea's waters and the evaluation of the resources of coastal baitfish species critical to the development and maintenance of a pole-and-1 ine tuna fishery. The implications of these assessments on national fisheries policies are later outlined.The author was the first to appreciate the enormity of the skipjack resources of the central and western Pacific Ocean, the migratory nature of the species and hence the regional potentials and implications for fisheries development. The need for a comprehensive scientific research programme to quantify resource dynamics and potentials was conceptualised in a proposal for independent funding for the South Pacific's largest scientific research undertaking of any type. More than A$5 million were raised by the author to fund research of the skipjack and baitfish resources of the waters of 25 countries and territories and additional high seas areas in the central and western Pacific. Results generated from the intensive field programme enabled the evaluation of the size and dynamics of skipjack and baitfish resources of the total region and of each country therein. Descriptions of the biology, population structure and behaviour of skipjack were incorporated into assessments of the resources and of the effects of fishing on them.The relationships amongst tuna population biology and dynamics, the changing Law of the Sea, and national fisheries development and management policies are described.