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Katsuwonus pelamis, listed in the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) as a highly migratory stock, is a South China Sea species that is fished heavily by rival claimants. Political disputes over sovereignty claims have made joint fisheries management difficult, if not impossible. The absence of a regional fisheries management organisation (RFMO) in the South China Sea further compounds this difficulty. As a result, no authoritative collaborative stock assessment on this or other stocks in the South China Sea has been carried out in recent years. New efforts by fisheries scientists from China, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam to develop a Common Fisheries Resource Analysis (CFRA) of katsuwonus pelamis in the South China Sea therefore represents a significant development in both regional science and regional cooperation. Using the Length-Based Spawning Potential Ratio (LBSPR) methodology, this paper examines the stock health of katsuwonus pelamis in the South China Sea. This delivers increased evidence to support domestic fisheries policymaking and develops norms and standards for regional cooperation