4.4. Management strategy evaluation for robust fishery management
The workshop provided a multidisciplinary overview of research, knowledge gaps and opportunities related to understanding the bio-physical and socio-economic drivers of WCPO tuna and fishery dynamics. To the extent that improved fishery management is one of the main drivers of this research agenda, it is worth noting that there is a potentially valuable framework that was not discussed at this workshop. Specifically, Management Strategy Evaluation (MSE) has a potential role in helping to prioritise research investment by enabling the testing of fishery management procedures, simulations that include the key dynamic features of the system, including fish and fishery dynamics, data collection and harvest control rules ([109], see CCSBT 2013 for a RFMO application to a tuna fishery). Once fishery specific simulations have been developed, the MSE process can then be used to compare different management procedures under a range of conditions spanning the uncertainty in system dynamics, including functional relationship uncertainties and stochastic process and observation errors. Trade-offs among competing management objectives for the different candidate management procedures can then be quantified, as can the value of information (e.g. which data should be collected with what sampling intensity to achieve the desired management outcome with a certain probability). In particular, MSE could be used to guide the research agenda above allowing prioritisation of topics that are directly useful for improving fisheries management (e.g. sensu [115]) and should therefore be considered in parallel with the priorities for bio-physical and socio-economic research identified (which would in turn assist the MSE in quantifying uncertainties and management priorities). In doing so, this would also help guide efforts towards appropriate funding sources.