Statistics of the french purse seine fishing fleet targeting tropical tunas in the Indian Ocean (1981-2018)
Résumé
In 2018, a total of 14 French vessels operated in the eastern Indian Ocean including 12 purse seiners and 2 supplies. The total capacity weighted by the months of activity for each vessel is 11686t. The total nominal effort in 2018 was of 2885 fishing days and 2723 sets with 2463 sets on floating objects and 260 on free schools. In 2018, the percentage of sets on FOB was 90% and the catches reached 91%. The total catch of the French component of the EU purse seine fleet of the Indian Ocean was 84,729 t, being composed of 36%, 58%, and 6% of yellowfin tuna, skipjack tuna, and bigeye tuna respectively. Thus, the most noticeable change in 2018 is the shift of catches from the free school sets, dominated by yellowfin, to the associated school sets, dominated by skipjack. As a consequence, the increase in total catches mainly concerned the skipjack catches.