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.

A stock assessment was not undertaken for kawakawa in 2016 and status is determined on the basis of the 2015 assessment. Three modelling methods, Optimised Catch-Only Method (OCOM), Catch-MSY and SS3 (Stock Synthesis) were used to assess the status of kawakawa in 2015. There was a divergence in the results from the three assessments and it was decided that the OCOM method was the most robust and so should be used for providing stock status advice. Results from the SS3 model were highly dependent on the pole and line CPUE series from the Maldives which forms only a small component of total Indian Ocean catches, so more CPUE series and better length data are needed to improve this approach. The Catch-MSY method was designed to estimate MSY rather than stock status and makes assumptions about the final depletion level, so the OCOM model, which makes fewer assumptions about final depletion, was considered more appropriate for generating management advice.