A report on the activities completed for Shark Research Plan by the SPC‐OFP

The first Shark Research Plan (SRP) covered the years 2010‐14 and included an indicator analysis, stock status profiles, and stock assessments for the original five key shark species/species‐groups. Important considerations were that mako and thresher sharks were expected to be assessed as a single group and that blue sharks and mako sharks likely represent northern and southern stocks that require separate assessments and collaboration with other bodies such as the ISC and IATTC. Further goals of the SRP included coordination of research and seeking improvements to shark data.
This paper focuses on the contribution of SPC‐OFP to the SRP through its joint roles as the WCPFC Scientific Service provider and a provider of technical advice to its own members. The paper has three goals 1) to summarize the highlights of the past four years work; 2) highlight some of the challenges SPC ‐ OFP faced and potential lessons to be learned for WCPFC; 3) make recommendations to the Scientific Committee as to how the SRP could be reviewed and repackaged as a more overarching WCPFC Shark Plan. We also include the regular section in the paper summarizing SPC shark data holdings.
Five stock assessments were conducted for three key shark stocks and in addition several auxiliary analyses were conducted in support of direct requests from WCPFC outside of the original SRP. The main challenges encountered were that the complexity and resources needed for the shark assessments were much greater than expected and some of the key data for the assessments was held by neither SPC nor WCPFC. We believe that WCPFC would be better served by an overarching Shark Plan (e.g., that includes science, compliance, management, and a set of goals) than a simple update of the current SRP. We recommend that SC10 begin the process of developing a new Shark Plan, potentially expedited by a small working group in the margins of SC10.
For 2015, and considering the resources typically available to fund shark activities by WCPFC, we suggest that an indicator analysis for all key shark species and an assessment for blue shark in the South Pacific Ocean (in collaboration with IATTC if possible) be the highest priorities.