Catches  of billfish by the Malaysian tuna longliners targeting the tropical and temperate tune in the  Indian Ocean

Catches of billfish by the Malaysian tuna longliners targeting the tropical and temperate tune in the Indian Ocean

Year of publication 2013

Product type Meeting

Edition 1

Synopsis (short abstract) A total of 4 plus Malaysian tu longliners plus one carrier began to fish for frozen albacore in the vicinity of southern Mauritius since the 3rd quarter of 2011. For this paper, the catch and effort data were alyzed from the record since 2003 to 2010 for tropical tu and from January 2012 – June 2013 for temperate tu. Swordfish and marlin contributed 6.85% and 6.34% respectively from the total tu catch in weight. The highest catch of swordfish and marlin from temperate tu fishing were recorded in at 7.7 tons (July 2012) and 9.7 tons (December 2012) respectively. Annualy catch ranges for both species vary greatly from 30 – 217 tons for swordfish and 35 – 225 tons for marlin. The average catch rate for swordfish and marlin were 0.36 ton/vessel and 0.31 tone/vessel respectively and 0.23 ton/vessel for sailfish. There were no record of sailfish caught by all the Malaysian tu longliners and this require further consultation with the vessel operators to identify the problem.

Statutory body / Meeting title Indian Ocean Tuna Commission (IOTC)

Meeting symbol IOTC-2013-WPB11-15

Meeting Session Number 11

Language English