Hydrography and Jack Mackerel stock in the South Pacific

The study on Hydrography and Jack Mackerel stock (Trachurus murphyi) in the South Pacific is currently one year underway. The main achievement consisted of collecting detailed datasets on Chilean, Peruvian and European fisheries activities and information on the hydrographical / biochemical and environmental conditions present in the South Pacific. The hydrographical and environmental datasets are based on the analyses of available acoustic information collected on-board survey and fishing vessels and satellite imagery data. Jack Mackerel habitat models are being developed based on these datasets. These models will be used to produce maps of the potential habitat of Jack Mackerel, on the basis of which different stock structure hypotheses will be tested. The models developed so far are able to accurately represent the distribution of Jack Mackerel as observed by fishing and surveying activities, although some additional investigations are needed to improve the statistical fits. Good fits with hydrographical conditions have been found. The models are not yet ready to be used for testing stock structure hypotheses, but this should be the case in the near future. During the first year of the project, an extensive literature review on Jack Mackerel has also been conducted, and a synthesis has been written, giving an overview on the species biology, ecology and stock structure. The literature suggests that a meta-population structure can be seen as a potential stock structure hypothesis. The literature review also contributed to identify environmental variables that should be crucial to define the suitable habitat of Jack Mackerel. Previously published results indicate, among others, temperature and dissolved oxygen ranges in which Jack Mackerel is able to survive. Finally, a framework to derive reference points for Jack Mackerel, assuming the single stock structure as used within the SPRFMO assessment, has been developed and made available to the SPRFMO Science Committee for review. Analyses of the assessment results within this framework indicate that the fishing mortality corresponding to maximum sustainable yield might be at around 0.15 per year with a corresponding spawning stock biomass of around 10 million tonnes. Different harvest control rules have been evaluated and show little risk to overexploitation in the medium and long term, although these result heavily rely on strong incoming year classes. The tools to evaluate sustainable management options for the Jack Mackerel population, when a stock structure other than a single one is assumed, are currently under development. The design of scenarios to be tested depend on the results of the habitat modelling exercises. Therefore, preliminary results will only become available early 2014.