As of May 31, Hawaii longliners targeting bigeye are no longer allowed to use wire leaders that whitetip sharks cannot bite through to free themselves. Also, the gear has to be removed before...
Fishing
Interactive Game To Teach Fishermen Financial Knowledge
An education game called “Fish N’ Learn” for local fisherfolk has been created by the Philippines Central Bank (BSP). It aims to teach 1.9 million fishermen how to improve their financial...
Sapmer Reduces Loss In 2021
French fishing company, Sapmer, published its full 2021 annual report on May 20 and omitted the half-year figures. Sales had increased and were mainly made in the second half of the year. The...
India Dominant Obstructor Of IOTC Progress On Yellowfin Rebuilding
The IOTC annual meeting last week turned out to be another frustrating affair for most parties as the Commission failed to reduce yellowfin catches. Despite great enthusiasm and ideas from...
No Headway In EU-Senegal Talks Over Seized Boats
Talks between Spanish and Senegalese officials are going nowhere with several Basque tuna vessels still stuck in Dakar Port and not being allowed to fish. Last week, the Spanish Minister of...
Dead Seiner Crew Member Found In Lagoon
A dead Asian crew member of a tuna purse seiner was found dead in the Majuro Lagoon, Republic of Marshall Islands (RMI), on Tuesday morning. According to a police report from the Majuro Atoll...
Accusations Of IUU Fishing EU Seiners Based On “Non-Reliable” Data
Europêche, the leading trade body representing EU fishing companies, is irate over allegations that Spanish and French-owned purse seiners were IUU fishing in the waters of several developing...
Mooring Of Large Seiners Steers Seychelles Quotes Upward
Skipjack catches in the Indian Ocean (IO) around Seychelles are poor, which is normal for May and June. There arer fewer fish caught on FADs during this period and only free school fishing is...
No Compliance, No Subsidies For Tuna Vessels Say Chinese Provinces
Two major Chinese provinces, Fujian and Shangdong, which serve as bases for the Chinese distant water fleet targeting tuna and other seafood, have announced that fuel subsidies will only be...
IOTC “Will Collapse” If Conservation Measures Are Not Applied
On the first day of the IOTC annual meeting, Seychelle’s Fisheries Minister warned that the Commission is “in a dangerous situation." On May 16, Jean Francois Ferrari announced in his opening...
Basque Pole & Liners Trapped In EU-Senegal Conflict
Since January, four Basque pole-and-line vessels have been moored in the Dakar Port while waiting for a solution to legal issues that caused their seizure. The Senegalese government...
Pacific Islands Have Excessive Burden Of Feeding The World
Tuvalu's Foreign Minister, Simon Kofe, has said that tiny Pacific island nations carry a disproportionate burden trying to feed the world with tuna from their waters. He wants climate change...
IOTC Annual Meeting Kicks Off
The 26th Session of the Indian Ocean Tuna Commission (IOTC) kicked off today in Victoria, Seychelles, and it will run until May 20. Several major topics will be revisited this year for...
Proposed Management Procedure Aimed To Relieve Pressure On IO Bigeye
Establishing a management procedure (MP) for bigeye in the Indian Ocean will be another major discussion during the IOTC annual meeting next week. Australia and environmental groups are urging...
EU Seiner Fleet Pays About EUR 1 Million For Fishing In Mauritanian Waters
On Wednesday, an overwhelming majority of Members of the European Parliament (MEP) voted in favor of the new fishing agreement between the EU and Mauritania that will run for five years. The...
Tuna Feeding Patterns Change During El Niño & La Niña
A group of scientists at the University of Canberra discovered that La Niña and El Niño atmospheric events affect the feeding habits of skipjack and yellowfin tuna. They came to this...
Philippines Skipjack Catches Nosedived In Q1
Philippines-flagged vessels landed one-fifth less skipjack in the first three months of 2022 than in the same period the year before. The catch volume fell back to the level of two years ago,...
Fiona, The Ancestor Of Modern Tuna?
A species of ancient marine reptiles looked like modern-day tunas, according to the latest research by archaeologists. They lived in oceans all over the planet throughout most of the Mesozoic...
Tuna Longliners Off Panama Port Catch Fire
Three vessels – two tuna longliners and one carrier – that were anchored about three kilometers from the port of Vacamonte in the province of Panamá Oeste caught fire on Wednesday morning,...
Massive Fuel Bill Puts Extreme Financial Pressure On Seiner Owners
Many tuna vessel owners are in a bad place at the moment – the rising fuel prices bring into question if they will be able to weather the extreme financial challenges that they are facing and...