Since the early 2000s the primary management problem facing the IOTC, as with all tuna RFMOs, has been overcapacity in the fleet [2] and [29]. As a first step towards addressing overcapacity, in 2002 the IOTC attempted to limit access to the fishery by creating a Record of Authorised Vessels (RAV), a register of vessels of greater than 24 m length that were authorised to fish in the IOTC area of competence (Resolution 14/04; http://www.iotc.org/cmms; accessed 16th June 2015). This Resolution has been updated and superseded on a number of occasions to include restrictions on vessel numbers and diversified to include smaller classes of vessels, although the RAV has ultimately failed in its intended purpose to maintain stocks at target levels [2]. Alternative controls on fishing effort were implemented from 2010 in an attempt to control fishing effort, in the form of a temporary closed area situated in a productive region of the fishery, although this too appears to have had little success in reducing catches in the fishery [13]. More recently, discussions have been held in IOTC on adopting a rights-based management system, principally through the determination of total allowable catch (TAC) and quota allocation for stocks of yellowfin and bigeye tuna (Resolution 14/02; http://www.iotc.org/cmms; accessed 16th June 2015). This is an inevitably thorny issue, as it necessarily involves developing and agreeing on criteria for allocating catches between the member states of the IOTC, and it remains to be seen how and when this fundamentally different approach to management will be implemented.