The world's largest and most productive tuna fishing ground, the WCPO, accounted for 54 percent of global captures (4.9 million tons) last year. In 2021, purse seiners experienced a fall in...
Fishing
NGOs Demand Improved Labor Standards For Crews In WCPO
A group of WCPFC observer NGOs has given a joint statement regarding implementing measures to improve the working conditions of fishers. Crew safety is a major topic of discussion in the RFMO...
Contrary To IATTC Scientists, WWF Persists EPO Skipjack Is Not Green
WWF Europe has conducted a new fishery assessment for skipjack in the EPO. The initiative came on the heels of the results of the IATTC stock assessment, which showed that the species is...
New Tuna Mural In Galician Port Town Upsets Locals
City council officials at the Galician port town of Burela are being criticised over a new mural of an unveiled scaffolding at a neighbourhood near Eijo Garay Street. Remodelling is being...
TU Assesses IO Longliners At Sea For Crew Welfare
Thai Union (TU) is leaving no stone unturned to ensure safe working and welfare conditions for crews on board longline vessels in the Indian Ocean. The company partnered with MRAG to...
New Device Helps To Reduce Longline Shark & Ray Bycatch
New technology developed by Fishtek Marine, ‘SharkGuard’, will help reduce blue shark and pelagic ray bycatch in longline fisheries without impacting the targeted tunas. The device...
Mazatlan Fishers Demand Revamp Of Fishing Sector
The fishing sector in Mazatlan, Mexico, is going through one of its darkest times. Catches have been dipping since the beginning of this year, and reportedly, tuna and...
Bangkok Skipjack Market Waits For What Is To Come
A crisis in the Philippine tuna business and the expectation of larger skipjack quantities to arrive in Bangkok have perpetuated reluctance in the tuna trade among buyers and purse seine...
Europêche And Orthongel Denounce “Militant NGOs” Disinformation Campaign
Europêche and Orthongel have hit back at activist NGOs, Bloom and Corporate Europe Observatory (CEO), for their "slanderous remarks" over Anne-France Mattlet. Since March, she is the Director...
Seiners Switch Off AIS To Hide From Pirates
A new study examined the intentional disabling of Automatic Identification Systems (AIS) in commercial fisheries. This often happened in four hot spots near the EEZs of West African nations,...
EU To Review Ecuador’s Yellow Card In Two Weeks’ Time
Ecuador has been working relentlessly to improve its fisheries management and have its EU yellow card lifted (assigned in October 2019). The EU is set to carry out a new review within two...
Bloom Accuses EU Fishing Organizations Of Influencing Fisheries Negotiation
French environmental NGO, BLOOM, and campaign group Corporate Europe Observatory (CEO) have formally complained to EU authorities over the appointment of Anne-France Mattlet in European...
OPAGAC Pushes ICCAT To Strictly Monitor Asian Fleets
OPAGAC has called out Asian fleets for fishing extensively in Atlantic waters. They raised this issue at the RFMO annual Commission meeting taking place in Portugal. The group representing...
Brazilian Canners To Rely More On Baitboats
Brazil's artisanal vessels were highly successful when it came to catching tuna but there was much less purse seine activity last year. Baitboats caught the most skipjack compared to any other...
Malta’s 2021 Tuna Farming Operating Profit Shows Improvement
Malta's National Statistics Office (NSO) released a study highlighting the country's total turnover for aquaculture and tuna farming industries amounting to EUR 224.9 million in 2021. Nearly...
World’s Largest Purse Seiner Sails Under Seychelles Flag
Purse seiners are extensively used for commercial fishing around the world. However, over the past couple of years, their numbers have decreased due to vessel de-listings by RFMOs. In a 2021...
French IO Seiners Drastically Reduced Yellowfin Free School Catches
The French purse seiner fleet was known for its free school yellowfin catch in the Indian Ocean. However, an overview of the fleet’s catches from 1981 to 2021 shows that since 2009, the...
How A Decade Of Management Measures Has Improved Global Tuna Stock Health
For the first time, a study has managed to show how measures implemented by resource-owning nations and RFMOs have improved global tuna stocks globally. Spanish research center AZTI in...
Grupomar’s Purse Seiner Catches Fire, No Casualties Reported
Purse seiner ‘Gijon’ owned by the Mexican tuna fishing company Grupomar caught fire at sea when returning to Manzanillo port. The reason was presumably a short circuit in the engine room area....
Spanish Girl Wants To Break Stereotypes And Become Tuna Boat Captain
A fisher’s life and sailing the high seas can be a tough job and is dominated by men. But 22-year-old Carlota Garcia Gonzalez is all set to ride high on her dreams. The Spanish youngster aims...