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IV. STATUS OF CURRENT RESEARCH NEEDS AND EFFORTS 

 IV. A. Major Research Problems 



Management should be directed toward all parts of a single stock, 

 rather than a part of a stock, a mixture of several stocks, or a mixture of 

 parts of several stocks. Therefore, it is of prime importance to define 

 the stocks or subpopulations of skipjack in the Pacific Ocean. 



IV. B. Current Research Efforts 



There is no current U.S. research effort on the eastern Pacific 

 skipjack tuna fishery; all research is being conducted by the Inter- 

 American Tropical Tuna Commission. The lATTC has recently increased its 

 tagging of skipjack in the eastern Pacific Ocean and conducted tagging 

 experiments in French Polynesia. The South Pacific Commission has been 

 tagging skipjack in large numbers in the western and central Pacific Ocean 

 in recent years. In addition, collection of blood samples for 

 subpopulation identification is being carried out in the western and 

 central Pacific. In 1979 the lATTC employed approximately 50 people with 

 an operating budget of $2,746,000. 



Various other organizations, particularly the Food and Agriculture 

 Organization of the United Nations, are also striving to obtain better 

 catch and effort data for skipjack in the western and central Pacific. 

 When these studies produce results, it will be possible to better ascertain 

 the status of the Pacific Ocean skipjack tuna subpopulations with regard to 

 fishing. 



IV. C. Future Research Needs 



The stock structure of skipjack tuna in the Pacific Ocean, 

 particularly the eastern Pacific, is poorly understood. It has been 

 suggested that this is due to the fact that most studies on skipjack tuna 

 have been based on populations occurring in relatively small areas whereas 

 studies on an oceanwide basis are needed. 



IV. D. Status of SWFC Data Base 



Skipjack tuna catch and related data for the fishery in the CYRA 

 and adjacent areas in the eastern tropical Pacific are in the files of 

 lATTC. Data are generally not available through the SWFC except for those 

 already published by lATTC. 



