This week, the WCPFC announced that Canada has withdrawn from hosting the 18th Regular Session of the WCPFC annual meeting in December 2021 due to the global health situation. Canada said in a...
Fishing
Promising Albacore Fishing Season Underway
The annual albacore fishing season has started in some of the largest regions with vessels targeting this species in Spain and the US. The fishers are expecting a good fishing campaign since...
IOTC Small Developing States Least Affected By Yellowfin Cuts
IOTC recently released details of the cut in tonnages adopted during its annual meeting in June for its interim plan for rebuilding the critical yellowfin stock in the Indian Ocean (IO). Last...
COVID-19 Makes PNG & Kiribati The Busiest Transshipment Hubs
WCPO purse seiners transshipped peak volumes of raw material to carriers in PNA ports in April, which was the highest in 2021. Ports in PNG and Kiribati handled almost 90 percent of the...
EU Drags On Issue Over Compensating Seychelles Fishers
Last week, Seychelles Minister of Fisheries, Jean-François Ferrari, spoke with his European counterparts about the agreed-upon compensation for Seychellois fishers who had worked aboard EU...
Despite Poor Catches Seychelles Skipjack Price Stays Stable
Catches in the Indian Ocean (IO) are still poor, but this is not unusual for this time of the year. Most of the skipjack and yellowfin are caught on FAD sets, and free school fishing is hardly...
Mysterious Fisher Death On Kenya-Flagged Seiner In IO
A Kenyan-flagged tuna purse seiner carrying a dead fisher was recently denied entry into Singapore waters. The vessel in question is the ‘Lu Qing Yuan Yu 160', which according to IOTC records...
Ministers Want Vaccination Efforts To Be Extended To All PNA Ports
In a recent regional gathering, PNA ministers expressed their concerns over the COVID-19 pandemic and suggested that all tuna fishermen and port workers should be vaccinated. The PNA held its...
On The Hook Relaunches Its Assault On MSC Certification Process
The On The Hook campaign has been relaunched as its members still believe that the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) continues to set the bar too low on sustainability for the logo to have any...
Mauritius Insists On UK Being Kicked Out Of IOTC Over Chagos
The government of Mauritius is adamant in asserting to the international community its sovereignty over the Chagos Archipelago in the Indian Ocean (IO). Hence, it is once again insisting that...
WCPO Seiner Captains Moved Eastwards For More Skipjack In April
Even though WCPO purse seiners intensified their efforts in April, there was a slight fall in their catches that month. Nevertheless, it was still one of the highest landings since November...
Purse Seiners’ Salt Bags A Threat To Pacific Islands
As debates and concerns over plastic pollution are heating up, recent research shows that tons of plastics salt bags are being dumped into the ocean each year by purse seiners operating in the...
Taiwanese Longliner Catches Fire In Indian Ocean
Yesterday, the Taiwanese-flagged longliner ‘De Yi No. 6’ was reported to have caught fire while in the Indian Ocean (IO). The incident occurred around 230 nautical miles off Durban, South...
The FAD Hunters Of Ecuador
For more than 11 years now, an informal buoy retrieval program has been operating in Ecuador. The initiative, started and still managed by Atunec, looked to cement a culture of healthy...
ANABAC’s Atlantic Yellowfin Catches Officially Carrying MSC Logo
Almost a year ago, the Spanish National Association of Tuna Freezer Vessel Shipowners (ANABAC) announced the start of its MSC evaluation for purse seiners targeting yellowfin in free schools...
Atlantic Island Fishers Angry Over EU Seiner dFADs
Traditional fishermen from the island nations in the Atlantic Ocean are protesting over industrial seiner fleets (including those from the EU) using drifting FADs (dFADs). They claim that it...
US Prohibits Hawaii Longliners From Using High-Risk Gear To Protect Sharks
The Hawaiian longline tuna fishery can no longer use wire leaders for their operations in the Western Pacific. This measure was laid down this week by the Western Pacific Fishery Management...
Spanish Immigrant Built Mexico’s Second Largest Tuna Company
Don Antonio Suárez immigrated from Spain to Mexico 53 years ago and built from the ground up one of the most important tuna companies in the nation -- GrupoMar. Over the years, he became known...
Somalis Outraged Over President Allowing Chinese To Catch Their Tuna
Many Somalians are enraged about the many trade agreements made by outgoing President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed. Among the deals, they are flabbergasted by the granting of tuna fishing...
How Wave Buoys & AFADs Can Help Protect Coastal Communities
Wave buoys connected to anchored FADs can help fisheries agencies and other stakeholders get a more accurate estimate of the anchor position of the FAD and provide essential oceanographic data...