The Pacific tuna fishing nation of Nauru has notified a United Nations body of its plans to start deep-sea mining in two years. It has until then to figure out and finalize the mining laws and...
Tuna Fishing News
SKJ1.8:BKK Sees Jump As FAD Ban Kicks In
After months of a downward trend, the price of whole round frozen skipjack in Bangkok has shot up as the FAD ban took effect at the start of July. High container prices are still a cause of...
EU Extends Equal Access Fishing Policy For Another Decade
On Monday, the European Commission (EC) extended for another 10 years the measure for EU member states to have access for fishing seafood including albacore and bluefin in each...
Chinese Fishing Company Building New Seiners To Cover More WCPO
The Chinese tuna fishing company, Zhonglu Oceanic, has announced its intention to expand its seiner fleet in order to increase production. Therefore, the firm will be building two new tuna...
Maldives Places 24-Hr Curfew On Island But Allows Tuna Fishing
Tuna fishing can continue despite a 24-hr curfew being imposed on the island of Thinadhoo in the Maldives to prevent the spread of COVID-19 in the area. The new restriction came into force on...
Cape Verde Grants 50 Year Concession For Tuna Farm
Cape Verde officials have authorized a deal for the next 50 years with the Norwegian group, Nortuna, for a tuna aquaculture production center on the island of São Vicente. On June 30, the...
Marine Fuel Costs Putting The Squeeze On Boat Owners
There are no signs that the high expense of seiner marine fuel is going away anytime soon since it inched even higher this week. A conflict between two large petroleum producers over the past...
WCPO Captains Report Less dFADs Than Observers And Satellites
The WCPO has the highest number of drifting FADs (dFADs) deployed or redeployed in a year but that is because it is the largest tuna fishery in the world. However, the number has stayed stable...
Tuna Companies Implementing FisheryProgress’ Human Rights Code
For several months, FisheryProgress, the global platform for Fishery Improvement Projects (FIPs) has been trying to include a human rights policy into its scoring system. Several tuna...
Major Global Tuna Highlights June 2021
June was a busy month for the global tuna industry. Skipjack prices in many of the trading hubs fell, partly caused by high shipping costs. Two RFMOs held meetings but only the IOTC managed to...
Indonesia Refuses To Cut Its IO Yellowfin Catches By 40%
Indonesia is unhappy about the IOTC reducing its Indian Ocean (IO) yellowfin catches in the new interim rebuilding plan, arguing that it will threaten its artisanal fishers' livelihoods. The...
Ex-Trump Advisor Advocates Military Build-Up To Secure Tuna Supply
The former US National Security Advisor, Robert C. O’Brien who worked under the Trump Administration is asking for military presence in American Samoa to prevent the expansion by the "maritime...
Western Pacific FAD Ban Starts, Uncertain Outlooks
Today, the FAD ban for the largest tuna fishery in the world – the WCPO – began and will run until September 30. During these months purse, seine vessels are not allowed to deploy, service, or...
Canada Not Hosting WCPFC Annual Gathering
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...
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...