| 7. Biodiversity and Management |
| 7-8. Stock Structure and Habitat of Swordfish and Billfishes with Comparative Approaches among Oceans |
| There is uncertainty about the structure, boundaries and mixing rates of swordfish and billfish stocks in the North Pacific Ocean. Recent evidence suggests that North and South Pacific swordfish stocks maybe mixing in equatorial regions along the eastern Pacific Ocean. Stock structure and boundary delineations will be important input parameters to a North Pacific swordfish stock assessment. The main objective of this sub-session will be to evaluate the stock structure, including non-genetic approaches (e.g., tagging), and develop plausible stock structure scenarios for application in the North Pacific stock assessment. Genetic and non-genetic approaches to advance the understanding of boundary, movement and mixing rates in other oceans will be reviewed and discussed by researchers experienced with stock structure of other oceans. |
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