Biography

After graduating, I was employed as a Senior Fisheries Officer at the Samoa Fisheries Division (Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries) in tuna researchfor five years. My main duty was to analyze the data collected from Samoa'sdomestic tuna fleet, a relatively small fleet compared to our neighbors' fleets.Hence, the impetus to pursue tuna research was due to the need to fully understand albacore tuna (an economically important target species) population dynamicsgiven the impact of tuna harvesting outside Samoa's Exclusive Economic Zone.Furthermore, I was motivated to learn about stock assessment methods afterlistening to prominent tuna scientists discuss tuna population dynamics at Regional Tuna meetings, I attended as a country representative. These meetings included the Standing Committee on Tuna and Billfish (SCTB) and Scientific Committee of the Western Central Pacific Tuna Commission.

PhD Research

The focus of my project is to determine a sustainable spatial management policyfor the South Pacific albacore stock in the Western Central Pacific (WCPFC)that optimizes stock productivity and economic returns. I will use various stockassessments techniques, to show the effect of fishing on albacore (and yellowfin,skipjack and bigeye) population structures in the WCPFC fisheries managementzone. I will then combine this, with an economic analysis to determine how thechanges in the species biomass affect economic returns from the fishery. Finally,I will use Ecospace (EwE) to simulate various scenarios to determine the appropriatepolicy for South Pacific albacore.