No information is available on the stock structure of Indo-Pacific king mackerel stock structure 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.

A new assessment was carried out in 2021 using the data-limited techniques (CMSY and LB-SPR). Analysis using the catch only method CMSY indicates the stock is being exploited at a rate that is below FMSY in recent years and that the stock appears to be above BMSY, although the estimates would be more pessimistic if the stock productivity is assumed to be less resilient. The analysis using the length-based approach (LB-SPR) was also undertaken in 2021 and the results are not conflicting with CMSY in terms of status. The catch-only model has provided a more defensible approach in addressing the uncertainty of key parameters and the currently available catch data for the Indo-Pacific king mackerel appear to be of sufficiently improved quality for conducting an assessment albeit still with some uncertainty. Based on the weight-of-evidence currently available, the stock is considered to be not overfished and not subject to overfishing (Table 1; Fig. 2).