SCS Global Services Report Solomon Islands Skipjack and Yellowfin Tuna Purse Seine and Pole-and-line Fishery MSC Fishery Assessment Report Announcement Comment Draft Report Client Contact Authors Amanda Hamilton Alexander (Sandy) Morison—Team Lead and Principle 1 Shelby Oliver—Principle 2 and Project 15 Fishery Port Road, Jurong, Manager Singapore 619735 Andy Bodsworth—Principle 3 [email protected] 29 May 2020 1 Table of Contents Solomon Islands Skipjack and Yellowfin Tuna 1 Purse Seine and Pole-and-line Fishery 1 MSC Fishery Assessment Report 1 1 Table of Contents 2 Table of Figures 4 2 Glossary 6 3 Executive Summary 8 4 Report Details 10 4.1 Authorship and peer review details 10 1.2 Version details 14 5 Unit(s) of Assessment and Certification and results overview 15 5.1 Unit(s) of Assessment (UoA) and Unit(s) of Certification 15 5.2 Assessment results overview 19 6 Traceability and eligibility 21 6.1 Eligibility date 21 6.2 Traceability within the fishery 21 6.3 Eligibility to enter further chains of custody 23 6.4 Eligibility of Inseparable or Practicably Inseparable (IPI) stock(s) to Enter Further Chains of Custody 24 7 Scoring 25 7.1 Summary of Performance Indicator level scores 25 7.2 7.2 Overview of the Fishery 27 7.3 Principle 1 33 7.4 Principle 2 96 7.5 Principle 3 92 8 Appendices 159 8.1 Assessment information 159 8.2 Evaluation processes and techniques 160 8.3 Peer Review reports 163 8.4 Stakeholder input 164 8.5 Conditions 165 8.6 Client Action Plan 169 8.7 Surveillance 169 8.8 Harmonized fishery assessments 171 8.9 Objection Procedure 175 SCS Global Services Report 8.10 Vessel list 176 8.11 Solomon Island Baitfish PSA 178 9 References 1 10 Template information and copyright 5 Version 5-4 (December 2019) | © SCS Global Services | MSC V1.1 Page 3 of 175 Table of Figures Table 1. Unit of Certification(s) and Unit of Assessment(s) ........................................................................................... 8 Table 2. Fisheries program documents versions ......................................................................................................... 14 Table 3. Unit(s) of Assessment (UoA) & Unit of Certification (UoC). ........................................................................... 17 Table 6. Traceability within the fishery ....................................................................................................................... 22 Table 7. Summary of Performance Indicator Scores and Associated Weights Used to Calculate Principle Scores..... 25 Table 8. Final Principle Scores ..................................................................................................................................... 26 Table 9. Skipjack tuna: Description of the updated structural sensitivity grid used to characterize uncertainty in the assessment (from WCPFC-SC 2019)............................................................................................................................. 37 Table 10. Skipjack tuna: Summary of reference points over the various models in the structural uncertainty grid. Fmult is the multiplier of recent (2014-2017) fishing mortality required to attain MSY, Frecent is the average fishing mortality of recent years (2014-2017), SBrecent is the average spawning potential of recent years (2015-2018) and SBlatest is the spawning potential in 2018 (from WCPFC-SC 2019). .............................................................................. 37 Table 11. Work plan agreed in 2017 for Skipjack Tuna for the adoption of harvest strategies under CMM 2014-06. ..................................................................................................................................................................................... 44 Table 12. Catch for skipjack tuna by gear type for UoA vessels, catch for the WCPFC Statistical Area and the UoAs’ total catch as a % of the total WCPFC Statistical Area catch (2013-2018) (Data for WCPFC and for Pole and Line from SPC-OFP 2019; data for the UoA for purse seine from SPC.). ............................................................................. 45 Table 13. Total Allowable Catch (TAC) and catch data ................................................................................................ 46 Table 14. Yellowfin tuna: Summary of reference points over the 48 models in the structural uncertainty grid retained for management advice using divisors of 20 and 50 for the weighting on the size composition data. Note that SBrecent/SBF=0 is calculated where SBrecent is the mean SB over 2012-2015 instead of 2011-2014 (used in the stock assessment report), at the request of the Scientific Committee (from WCPFC-SC 2017). .......................... 55 Table 15. Work plan from WCPFC14 (2017) for Yellowfin Tuna for the adoption of harvest strategies under CMM 2014-06. Bold items are the six elements that are referred to in CMM 2014-06 (a. Objectives, b. Reference Points, c. Acceptable Levels of Risk, d. Monitoring, e. Harvest Control Rules and f. MSE). Items in brackets are related to harvest strategy development, are part of the plan, but are not one of these six elements. .................................... 60 Table 16. Catch for yellowfin tuna by gear type for UoA vessels, catch for the WCPFC Statistical Area and the UoAs’ total catch as a % of the total WCPFC Statistical Area catch (2013-2018) (Data for WCPFC and for Pole and Line from SPC-OFP 2019; data for the UoA for purse seine from SPC). .............................................................................. 61 Table 17. Total Allowable Catch (TAC) and catch data ................................................................................................ 61 Table 18. Catch Summary for Tri Marine purse-seine fishery from all sets from 2013 to 2019 (Data from SPC). Catch volumes of ETP species were excluded. ...................................................................................................................... 99 Table 19 Catch Summary for Tri Marine purse-seine fishery by set type from 2013 to 2019 (Data from SPC). Only species that represent greater than 0.01% of catch from that set type are shown. ETP catches were excluded. ....... 1 Table 20. Number of individuals classified as ETP species recorded as caught by UoA purse seine vessels (2013-19). The percentage of individuals recorded as released alive are included (averaged across all set types). Individuals were assumed dead if fate was recorded as unknown. Status for turtles, sharks and rays and mammals are CITES Appendix A species listed (App 1 or App 2) and/or protected by WCPFC Conservation Management Measures (CMMs). FS=freeschool. ................................................................................................................................................. 1 Table 21 Bait catch and tuna catch (Yellowfin and Skipjack) for all vessels in the Solomon Islands pole-and-line fishery, 2011 to 2014 (source: NFD). ............................................................................................................................. 2 Table 22 Bait use for the Solomon Island’s pole-and-line fishery in 2019, reported in pole-and-line vessel logbooks. ....................................................................................................................................................................................... 3 Table 23 Retained species in the Solomon Island baitfish fishery (source FFA). ........................................................... 4 Table 24 Scoring elements for purse-seine fishery and pole-and-line. Note that for purse seine, species designation is evaluated from catch contribution across all set types combined. See Table 15 & Table 17. Pole-and-line evaluations include non-target and bait use. No species are RBF. ................................................................................ 5 Table 25. Membership of WCPFC and FFA, signatories to UNFSA for PNA Parties. ............................................... 106 Table 26. WCPFC binding conservation management measures (CMM) and Resolutions of particular relevance to the Unit of Assessment. ............................................................................................................................................ 107 SCS Global Services Report Table 27: legal and policy framework for Solomon Islands tuna fisheries (source: adapted from McClean et al. 2019). ......................................................................................................................................................................... 109 Table 28: Solomon Islands Tuna Management and Development Plan objectives and actions (TMDP 2015). ........ 117 Table 29: Solomon Islands tuna fishery management zones, licence types and management approaches (Source: adapted from MRAG, 2016). ..................................................................................................................................... 118 Table 31. Summary of previous assessment conditions ............................................................................................ 160 Table 34. Decision Rule for Calculating Performance Indicator Scores based on Scoring Issues, and for Calculating Performance Indicator Scores in Cases of Multiple Scoring Elements. (Adapted from MSC FCPV2.2 Table 4) ..... 162 Table 36. Summary of conditions open at time of reassessment announcement .................................................... 165 Table 42. Fisheries