Pacific Tuna Fisheries Science and Global Policy Drivers
- Submission status
- Open
- Submission deadline
This Collection supports and amplifies research related to SDG 14 - Life Below Water and SDG 13 - Climate Action.
Shanghai Ocean University (SHOU), the Pacific Community (SPC) and the Australian National Centre for Ocean Resources and Security (ANCORS) are co-hosting an International Symposium on the Science of Pacific Tunas and Tuna Fisheries on 8 – 10th October 2025, in Shanghai, China. The symposium will discuss the latest natural and social sciences of Pacific tunas and tuna fisheries and aim to strengthen necessary scientific cooperation in the context of climate change and global policy drivers. The symposium will focus on three themes:
- Biological and ecological studies of Pacific tunas. Papers and discussions on tuna biology (growth, reproduction, etc.) and tuna ecology (migration, forage, population structure, population distribution, etc.). Studies on climate change impacts, tuna sampling and tuna genetics are also invited.
- Stock assessment and management strategy evaluation of Pacific tunas. Papers and discussions on tuna stock assessment (assessment model development, CPUE standardization, reference points etc.) as well as tuna management strategy evaluation (operating model development, management procedure development and testing, etc). Papers on integrating climate change into stock assessments and MSE are also invited.
- Global policy drivers for Pacific tuna fisheries. Papers and discussions on the wider influences of global initiatives on regional tuna science and policy, including studies on BBNJ, ITLOS advisory opinion on climate change, WTO fishery subsidies, SDGs, etc.
The co-hosts invite conference participants to submit papers to a special collection that will focus on developments in Pacific tuna fisheries science and management procedures, and the global policy drivers that influence the development, conservation and management of the Pacific tuna fisheries. In addition to the individual papers, the co-hosts will coordinate three papers that analyse the three themes, and an overarching synthesis paper that discusses the key insights from the conference.
Editors
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Quentin Hanich, PhD
Professor of Fisheries Governance, Australian National Centre for Ocean Resources and Security (ANCORS), University of Wollongong, Australia
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Fan Zhang, PhD
Professor of Fisheries Science, Shanghai Ocean University, China
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Graham Pilling, PhD
Deputy Director, Fisheries Aquaculture and Marine Ecosystems Division, The Pacific Community (SPC), New Caledonia
Quentin Hanich, PhD, University of Wollongong, Australia
Professor Quentin Hanich leads the Fisheries Governance Research Program at the Australian National Centre for Ocean Resources and Security (ANCORS), University of Wollongong, where he is a Nippon Foundation Ocean Nexus Research Chair. He has established various international research partnerships focusing on ocean governance and equity, marine conservation, and the sustainable and equitable management of transboundary fisheries. He is particularly interested in strategic research and capacity building projects that strengthen cooperation and consensus building. In addition to his roles at the University of Wollongong, Professor Hanich is the Chair of the Indian Ocean Tuna Commission’s Technical Committee on Allocation Criteria, and is a member of the United Nations Pool of Experts for the World Ocean Assessments. Prof. Hanich has developed and taught undergraduate and post-graduate subjects, post-graduate courses, and professional short courses on international negotiations, fisheries management, and ocean governance.
Fan Zhang, PhD, Shanghai Ocean University, China
Dr Fan Zhang is a professor at Shanghai Ocean University. He obtained his BSc and MSc degrees at Ocean University of China and acquired a PhD degree at University of Guelph. Before taking his current position, Dr Zhang was a Research Scientist at Memorial University of Newfoundland. Dr Zhang is broadly interested in studying fish population dynamics, stock assessment, fisheries management and fishing fleet dynamics, with particular interest in tuna fisheries in recent years. He has developed and taught undergraduate and post-graduate courses on stock assessment, fisheries management, and fisheries statistics. In addition to his roles at the Shanghai Ocean University, Dr Zhang is the associate editor of Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences, the editor of Marine Life Science & Technology, and serves as China’s head scientist at the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT).
Graham Pilling, PhD, The Pacific Community (SPC), New Caledonia
Dr Graham Pilling is a Deputy Director of the Fisheries Aquaculture and Marine Ecosystems Division at the Pacific Community (SPC), based in New Caledonia. He leads the Oceanic Fisheries Programme, which manages the regional data on tuna and tuna like species and develops stock assessment and ecosystem advice for SPC members and the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission to underpin sustainable management of the region’s tuna resources. Prior to moving to SPC in 2010, he was the Head of the Seas and Oceans Group with the Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science, in Lowestoft UK, and was a marine consultant at MRAG Ltd in London, where he undertook his PhD on reef fisheries in the Indian Ocean. A key research area has been the testing of ‘harvest strategies’ in fisheries from those for western and central Pacific Ocean tuna, through those for Indian Ocean reef fish, to demersal fisheries in European waters.
