The Marine chapter of the 2021 State of the Environment (SoE) report incorporates multiple expert templates developed from streams of marine data. This metadata record describes the Expert Assessment "State and Trend of tuna and billfish".
A PDF of the full Expert Assessment, including figures and tables (where provided) is downloadable in the "On-line Resources" section of this record as "EXPERT ASSESSMENT 2021 - Tuna and billfish"
DESCRIPTION OF TAXONOMIC GROUP FOR EXPERT ASSESSMENT
This assessment focuses on those tuna and billfish species that are caught in commercial and recreational fisheries in Australian waters. Southern bluefin tuna are caught predominantly by commercial fisheries in the south-west and temperate east bioregions with recreational catches occurring in the north-west and south-east bioregions. Yellowfin, bigeye and albacore tunas, swordfish and striped marlin are predominantly caught by commercial and recreational fisheries in the north-west, south-west, temperate east and north east bioregions with recreational catches occurring in the north and in the south-east seasonally. Blue and black marlin are caught recreationally in the north, north-east, temperate east, and north-west bioregions with commercial catches of the species not permitted (Larcombe et al. 2020, NSW DPI 2018; Patterson et al. 2020a; Williams et al. 2020).
DATA STREAM(S) USED IN EXPERT ASSESSMENT
Assessment based on review of most recent stock assessments conducted by Regional Fisheries Management Organisations – see references for spatial and temporal coverage of data incorporated into assessments.
2021 SOE ASSESSMENT SUMMARY [see attached Expert Assessment for full details]
• 2021 •
Assessment grade: Good
Assessment trend: Stable
Confidence grade: Adequate high quality evidence or high level of consensus
Confidence trend: Adequate high quality evidence or high level of consensus
Comparability: Grade and trend are comparable to the 2016 assessment
• 2016 •
Assessment grade: Good
Assessment trend: Stable
Confidence grade: Adequate high quality evidence and high level of consensus
Confidence trend: Adequate high quality evidence and high level of consensus
Comparability: Grade and trend are not comparable to the 2011 assessment
CHANGES SINCE 2016 SOE ASSESSMENT
Assessment has not changed.