After graduating, I was employed as a Senior Fisheries Officer at the SamoaFisheries 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 understandalbacore 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 atRegional Tuna meetings, I attended as a country representative. These meetingsincluded the Standing Committee on Tuna and Billfish (SCTB) and ScientificCommittee 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.

Publications

Su'a, D., Watt, P and Imo, R. SamoaNational Tuna Fisheries Report. 15th Meeting of the Standing Committeeon Tuna and Billfish. Honolulu, Hawaii 22-27th July, 2002. NFR-20, SCTB WorkingPaper.

Imo, R., Time, S and Su'a, D. SamoaTuna Fisheries Report. Presented at the 17th Meeting of the Standing Committeeon Tuna and Billfish. Majuro, Marshall Islands. 9-18th August 2004. NFR-23SCTB Working Paper.
 

Imo, R., Mulipola, A., Time, S. And Faasili Ueta Jr. SamoaTuna Fisheries Report 2005. 1st Meeting of the Scientific Committee ofthe Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission WCPFC-SC1 Noumea, NewCaledonia 8-19 August 2005.