Abstract
We assessed the stock of the southern bluefin tuna (SBT, Thunnus maccoyii) by applying the MULTIFAN-CL model. The model is spatially disaggregated, with the population and fisheries stratified into a number of regions within the overall stock range. Catch, effort, length-frequency, and tagging data from 1965 to 2003 were stratified by three regions and four quarters (Jan-Mar, Apr-Jun, Jul-Sept and Oct-Dec). These data were used to estimate the instantaneous fishing mortality (F), biomass, spawning biomass, recruitment, and so on. The Commission for the Conservation of Southern Bluefin Tuna (CCSBT) used only Japanese data and did not consider migration for the SBT stock assessment. By contrast, we used Japanese, Australian, New Zealand, Taiwanese, and Korean data, and considered migration. As a result, the estimated annual average F of all age classes was 0.073/yr and the F of age class 6-10 was the highest. The results also showed that the biomass and recruitment of SBT had declined significantly after 1965. Compared with the CCSBT results, the estimated spawning biomass in this study was lower and more uncertain. However, we will conduct a sensitivity analysis to get more accurate biological parameters and results. In addition, we need to use the bootstrap resampling method to quantify the uncertainty.
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