Tuna Resource Management - Economic implications and trade-offs in achieving maximum sustainable yield for bigeye and yellowfin tuna in the Western and Central Pacific Ocean

mortality on the stocks should be reduced by 25 and 10 per cent respectively from the average levels of 2001 -04 (WCPFC 2006)).While the need for information on biological implications of possible management measures is self evident, there is also a need to consider the economic implications and trade-offs of such measures to obtain some insight into possible total and relative burdens borne by participants in the fishery-coastal and fishing states-and by the different components of the industry.The need for the WPCFC to consider economic advice is clear given Article 10 paragraph 1j) of the Convention on the Conservation and Management of Highly Migratory Fish Stocks in the Western and Central Pacific Ocean, which includes as a function of the commission that it shall 'obtain and evaluate economic and other fisheries-related data and information relevant to the work of the Commission' and that, under Article 6 paragraph 1b) on the precautionary approach notes, the commission has to take into account, among other factors, 'socioeconomic conditions'.In Reid (2006), an analysis of economic trade-offs in terms of an across-the-board reduction in effort of 15 per cent was undertaken based on the results of the work done for the WCPFC-SC1 (Hampton et al. 2005; Langley and Hampton 2005; Langley et al. 2005).This study concluded that the major beneficiary of an across-the-board reduction in effort levels would be the frozen longline fleet targeting sashimi-grade tuna, which operates primarily on the high seas, while the economic costs of such a policy would be borne primarily by the purse-seine fleet and the Pacific island countries in whose waters this fleet operates.This paper re-examines the economic implications of an across-the-board effort reduction based on outcomes of stock assessments conducted for the SC2 and extend the analysis to examine four other possible management options that might be