A Tale of 2 Oceans and Species (Disconnects in Assessment and Environmental Processes Governing Recruitment Anomalies: A Need for Finer Resolution in Assessments!)

The study focusses on two important commercial species; tuna and salmon in two different oceans; the Pacific and Indian oceans respectively. Both species fluctuate in abundance primarily driven by recruitment anomalies; however there is some coherence in recruitment anomalies driven by large scale climate anomalies. The author displays some of the data based on estimates derived from either tagged data (salmon) or estimated recruitment from integrated assessments (tuna). Both species are modelled at spatial scales that are enormous (1000’s of kilometres), and the author argues that for models to be useful for management, finer resolution spatial and temporal structures are needed that are on the same scale as both the biological life history of the species, as well as the environmental scale that effects key life stages of the species. A thorough examination of current practices needs to occur to make these models more realistic and useful for management.