US federal agency NOAA announced a fisheries proposal on electronic reporting last week which could be introduced at the beginning of next year in the Greater Atlantic and Southeast regions of...
Tuna Fishing News
American Samoa Wants More Clarity On ELAPS Seiner Rule Change
American Samoa has once again expressed the economic impact of the updated Effort Limit Area for Purse Seine (ELAPS) rule for the US seiner fleet. Taotasi Archie Soliai, the Director of Marine...
EPO Seiner Fleets Pass Record 2023 Skipjack Catches Already In July
Purse seiners fishing in the EPO have caught extraordinary volumes of skipjack. By July, they had already surpassed the entire 2023 volume. This is astonishing as last year these vessels...
US Denies Port Privileges To Several Tuna Longliners
The US has denied US port privileges to tuna and other fishing vessels of 17 nations accused of IUU fishing and high bycatch from using driftnets, effective from October 10, 2024. It includes...
IATTC’s Measures Applauded But Still More Work To Be Done Say NGOs
The IATTC annual meeting concluded with the consensus to extend the current conservation measures for tropical tuna for another two years. Besides adopting interim standards for electronic...
Wofco’s 2023 Net Profit Jumped By 30 Percent
The revenue of the Spanish Worldwide Fishing Company (WOFCO) for 2023 grew significantly compared to the year before and its net profit jumped by a massive 30 percent. The group not only...
Yellowfin Longline Fishery Would Have Hampered Maldives’ Sustainability Image
The government's announcement to reopen the yellowfin longline fishery in August after a five-year-long gap raised the ire of the archipelago’s handline fishers who fish for this species and...
IO Coastal States Gathered To Reach Consensus On Catch Limits
The 36th session of the G16 Like-minded Coastal States of the Indian Ocean took place last week in Maldives. The purpose of the meeting was for the members to reach an agreement on the IOTC...
Somalia Makes Firm Decisions On Tuna Fishing Licenses
The Somalian Ministry of Fisheries and Blue Economy recently released new comprehensive Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) to regulate tuna fishing activities in its EEZ of over 830,389 km2...
IATTC Adopts Minimum EM Standards
The interim minimum standards for electronic monitoring (EM) were adopted on the last day of the IATTC meeting. NGOs have been pushing for this decision before and during the meeting. Atuna...
Sarah Malloy To Oversee American Samoa For NOAA
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) new Regional Administrator, Sarah Malloy, will assume the role from today. The sustainable use of marine life activities in the US...
Iran Is Growing Its Stake In IO Tuna Fishing
Iran has greatly expanded its tuna and other seafood exports this year. Tuna export was valued at USD 14.6 million. From 2022 to 2023, total seafood exports exceeded USD 310 million for...
BBC Documentary Shows Harsh Reality Of Onboard Human Abuse
A recently released British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) documentary highlighted the real-life horrors encountered by migrant workers of a Scottish fishing fleet TN Trawlers owned by Tom...
IATTC Discusses Need For Interim Electronic Monitoring Standards
The IATTC annual meeting is currently ongoing and the interim minimum standards on electronic monitoring (EM) on vessels have been discussed and recommendations on sharks, and FADs have also...
MSC Criticized For Turning Blind Eye Towards Forced Labor On Tuna Boats
A UK-based ocean science journal recently published a paper that bashed the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) for not taking adequate steps to address forced labor on tuna vessels. The study,...
2023 Pole-And-Line WCPO Catches Hit Bottom In Nearly 50 Years
Pole-and-line catches in the WCPO dropped to the lowest level in the past five decades in 2023. Japanese and Indonesian fleets accounted for nearly all of this activity in this part of the...
‘A Bowl Of Tuna’ Is Back In Isla Cristina
The Spanish coastal town of Isla Cristina is hosting the annual open-air exhibition ‘A Bowl of Tuna’ and the 22nd Almadraba Captains Meeting from September 8 to 15. It is organized by the...
Spain’s Mechanism To Optimize Atlantic Bigeye Quota Begins
The Spanish government recently launched a measure to optimize bigeye quota in the Atlantic Ocean as per ICCAT regulations. All the vessels that have exhausted their limits can continue...
Vietnamese Producers Protest Over Skipjack Size Regulation
Vietnamese fishing industry stakeholders demanded that the regulation stating skipjack must be minimal 50 cm has jeopardized their businesses and the livelihoods of fishers. The Department of...
Staff Recommends IATTC To Improve Data Collection To Manage FADs And Their Impact
The annual meeting of the IATTC begins today in Panama City. Topics such as harvest strategies of several tuna species, bycatch mitigation, and FAD management and its measures are on the...