Progress against the 2021-2030 Shark Research Plan - 2024

The purpose of this document is to review progress against the SRP tasks to facilitate future planning of WCPFC shark research. At SC19 the SC reviewed the proposed work in the SRP and updated the research plan. These updates on the 2021 - 2030 SRP, as well as the work progressed against that project list, are included in Table 1. In addition, Table 2 is provided to update the SC assessment schedule for sharks. It is suggested that data rich assessments be attempted for blue, shortfin mako, silky and oceanic whitetip sharks, with the remainder being evaluated through fishery characterisations and/or low information estimations of fishing mortality (F) risk. A new assessment for southwest Pacific blue shark was due to start with the data exploration work beginning in 2025, however, we suggested that the start date be moved to 2026 to better fit with the rest of the stock assessment schedule and to avoid the first year of new shark assessments overlapping with the second year of the shark assessment that is underway. There have been four changes to the assessment schedule: The ISC has proposed to undertake indicator analyses for north Pacific blue and north Pacific shortfin mako sharks in 2025 and 2026 respectively. The ISC have also identified several uncertainties that will require more work to resolve and have proposed moving the next north Pacific blue shark assessment from 2026 to 2027. The project to conduct fishery characterisation of manta and mobulid rays and whale sharks was moved by WCPFC20 from 2024 to 2025. In addition, we suggest changing the southwest Pacific shortfin mako shark assessment to a low information assessment or characterisation given the data issues experienced with the last assessment.