No information is available on stock structure of kawakawa in Indian Ocean. The IOTC coordinated Stock Structure Project, which commenced in early-2015, aims to supplement gaps in the existing knowledge on biological data, and in particular provide an insight on whether neritic tuna and tuna like species should be considered as a single Indian Ocean stock.

No new stock assessment was conducted for kawakawa in 2021 and so the results are based on the assessment carried out in 2020 using data-limited assessment techniques. The OCOM model indicated that the fishing mortality F was very close to FMSY (F/FMSY=0.98) and the B above BMSY (B/BMSY=1.13). The estimated probability of the stock currently being in green quadrant of the Kobe plot is about 50%. Due to the quality of the data being used, the simple modelling approach employed in 2020, and the large increase in kawakawa catches over the last decade (Fig. 1), measures need to be taken in order to reduce the level of catches which have surpassed the estimated MSY levels for all years since 2011. Based on the weight-of-evidence available, the kawakawa stock for the Indian Ocean is classified as not overfished and not subject to overfishing (Table 1, Fig. 2).