Managing Fishing Capacity of the World Tuna Fleet

FAO Fisheries Circular No. 982

FIRM/C982(En)
ISSN 0429-9329

Table of Contents

by

James Joseph
FAO Consultant
La Jolla
United States of America

FOOD AND AGRICULTURE ORGANIZATION OF THE UNITED NATIONS
Rome, 2003

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© FAO 2003

Table of Contents

PREPARATION OF THIS DOCUMENT

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

1 INTRODUCTION

2 TRENDS IN THE PRODUCTION OF WORLD TUNA FISHERIES

2.1 By Oceans
2.2 By Species

2.2.1 Skipjack
2.2.2 Yellowfin
2.2.3 Bigeye
2.2.4 Albacore
2.2.5 Bluefin

3 LOOKING AHEAD

3.1 Production

3.1.1 Yellowfin and skipjack
3.1.2 Bigeye
3.1.3 Albacore
3.1.4 Bluefin
3.1.5 All species

3.2 Adequacy of Catch Statistics

4 THE TUNA FISHING VESSELS OF THE WORLD

4.1 Gear Types

4.1.1 Purse Seines
4.1.2 Longlines
4.1.3 Pole and Line
4.1.4 Trolling
4.1.5 Gillnets

4.2 Present-day Tuna Fleets

4.2.1 Purse-seine fleets
4.2.2 Longline fleets
4.2.3 Baitboat fleets
4.2.4 Other fleets

4.3 Fleet Statistics for the Future

5 FLEET CAPACITY AND PRODUCTION

5.1 Data Envelopment Analysis of the Eastern Pacific Tuna Fishery

5.1.1 Data used
5.1.2 Empirical results

5.2 Looking at the Global Picture

6 CAPACITY LIMITATION EXPERIENCES IN TUNA FISHERIES

6.1 International Fisheries Organization Initiatives
6.2 National Initiatives
6.3 Industry Initiatives

6.3.1 The longline industry
6.3.2 The purse-seine industry

7 THE REALITIES OF LIMITING FLEET SIZE

7.1 Controlling Catch
7.2 The World Tuna Fleet
7.3 Possible Criteria for Allocating Fleet Capacity Limitations

8 THE ESSENTIAL AND INITIAL STEPS

8.1 The Resource Base
8.2 Fleet Statistics
8.3 Optimum Fleet Size
8.4 Fleet Capacity Limits
8.5 Enforcement

9 SOME POSSIBLE OPTIONS FOR LIMITING FLEET CAPACITY

9.1 The Status Quo
9.2 A Moratorium on Fleet Growth
9.3 An Industry Programme
9.4 Intergovernmental Regional Programmes

10 CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

11 REFERENCES