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IV. B. Current Research Efforts 



Compared to the study of other species, research on bill fishes in 

 the Indian Ocean has been considered of low priority and there are few 

 published papers on the subject in the literature. Based on the results of 

 longline fishing, a study of the distribution and biology of striped marlin 

 in the Indian Ocean was published in 1978 (Pillai and Ueyanagi 1978). Two 

 background papers^'^ on the assessment of Indian Ocean bill fishes were 

 presented at the Workshop on the Assessment of Selected Tuna and Bill fish 

 Stocks in the Pacific and Indian Oceans held in Shimizu, Japan, in June 

 1979 (FAO, in press). 



Current research efforts on Indian Ocean bill fishes include 

 studies on their general biology at the Central Marine Fisheries Research 

 Institute, India, and studies on their biology and population dynamics at 

 the Far Seas Fisheries Research Laboratory Shimizu, Japan. 



IV. C. Future Research Needs 



1) Because research on Indian Ocean bill fishes has been considered 

 of low priority, these species have been the subject of comparatively 

 little research. Estimates of growth rates, mortality rates, and 

 recruitment for Indian Ocean billfishes are needed. 



2) One of the first attempts at assessing the status of Indian 

 Ocean billfishes was made at the Shimizu Workshop (FAO, in press). It was 

 pointed out that deficiencies in estimates of total catch for Indian Ocean 

 billfishes made the reliable assessment of potential yield and optimum 

 fishing effort difficult. Reliable assessment of the status of Indian 

 Ocean billfishes requires considerable improvements in the fishery 

 statistics. In particular, steps are needed to improve basic requirements 

 such as correctly identifying species and allowing for separate recording 

 of the catch of each species in longline logbooks. 



I. V.C.I. Suggested Approach and Methods 



First priority should be given to collecting statistics 

 of total catch. Data on fishing effort, size composition, and detailed 

 locality of capture are also essential for stock and fishery assessments. 

 Participants at the Shimizu Workshop strongly recommended that countries 

 landing large quantities of tuna (but collecting inadequate fishery 



Honma, M., and S. Ueyanagi. 1979. Stock assessment of billfishes in 

 the Indian Ocean. Prepared for the Workshop on the Assessment of Selected 

 Tunas and Billfish Stocks in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. Shimizu, 

 Japan, 13-22 June 1979. 



