The collection of the various catch statistics for tuna species has been carried out by various tuna fishery bodies and other regional international organizations for specific species and areas. Such statistics were provided to the Fisheries and Aquaculture Resources Use and Conservation Division (FIR) of FAO's Fisheries Department (FI) for the purpose of preparing this nominal catches database.

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the Marine and Inland Fisheries Service of its Fisheries Department and, in particular, the authors of this presentation are grateful for this collaboration.

The following institutions provided their data on tuna catches:

Commission for the Conservation of Southern Bluefin Tuna - CCSBT
Indian Ocean Tuna Commission - IOTC
Interim Scientific Committee for Tuna and Tuna-like Species in the North Pacific Ocean - ISC
International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas - ICCAT
Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission - IATTC
Secretariat of the Pacific Community - SPC

The authors would like to thank especially Robert Kennedy (CCSBT), Miguel Herrera (IOTC), Michael G. Hinton (IATTC), Papa Kebe and Carlos Palma (ICCAT), Timothy Lawson (SPC) and Yuji Uozumi (ISC) for the preparation and provision of nominal catch data.

We also appreciate the assistance provided by FAO's Statistics and Information Service (FIPS), particularly by Fabrizio Sibeni and Francesco Calderini.

Accuracy
Original sources of nominal catch data obtained by FAO's Fisheries and Aquaculture Resources Use and Conservation Division (FIR) from tuna fishery bodies and other regional international organizations are not necessarily official national statistics, however data provided by these tuna fishery bodies and other regional international organizations are regarded as most representative. Please see the respective Web site of each institution.

Presentation of data
The global tuna nominal catches data can be queried through a Web-based interface from which the user can select each item measured in the dataset and display it either as a table or as a chart. Furthermore, the user can also download the result of its query.

The first step is to select one or more items under each of the main four selection tabs of the Query Panel: stocks, gears, fishing countries and years. Then the user can select the type of aggregation or details to display and send the query. The resulting table can be either exported or displayed as a graph.

Consistency
Méthode de collecte :  Collection of catch statistics for tuna species is carried out by tuna fishery bodies and other regional international organizations and is then reported to FAO. Every institution has its specific way of reporting data. Disparities in the way data were provided is due to variations within file types (e.g. Excel, dBase, Access) as well as the use of different codes.

The stocks for which nominal catches were received by each institution are listed below:

1. CCSBT: Southern bluefin.
2. IOTC: Indian Ocean albacore, Indian Ocean bigeye, Indian Ocean skipjack and Indian Ocean yellowfin;
3. IATTC: Pacific bigeye, eastern Pacific skipjack and eastern Pacific yellowfin;
4. ICCAT: North Atlantic albacore, South Atlantic albacore, Mediterranean albacore, Atlantic bigeye, eastern Atlantic bluefin, western Atlantic bluefin, eastern Atlantic skipjack, western Atlantic skipjack and Atlantic yellowfin;
5. ISC: North Pacific albacore and Pacific bluefin;
6. SPC: South Pacific albacore, Pacific bigeye, western and central Pacific bigey, western and central Pacific skipjack, western and central Pacific yellowfin.

The fishing gear codes used by the different institutions are shown as follows:

Commission for the Conservation of Southern Bluefin Tuna (CCSBT)

CCSBT's code	Explanation	Code of major fishing gear
BB	Baitboat	PL
GILL	Gillnet	OTHER
HAND	Handline	OTHER
LL	Longline	LL
PS	Purse seine	PS
SURF *	Surface gears	SURF
TROL	Troll line	TROLL
UNCL	Unclassified	OTHER

* Surface gears include mainly purse seine and pole and line. CCSBT only started to disaggregate pole and line and purse seine catches after 1974.

Indian Ocean Tuna Commission (IOTC)

IOTC's gear name	Code of major fishing gear
Baitboat	PL
Gillnet	OTHER
Handline	OTHER
Longline	LL
Purse seine	PS
Troll line	TROLL
Unclassified	OTHER

International Commission for the Conservation of the Atlantic Tuna (ICCAT)

ICCAT's code	Explanation	Code of major fishing gear
BB	Baitboat	PL
BBF	Baitboat with freezers	PL
BBI	Baitboat with ice-wells	PL
BLL	Bottom or deep longline	LL
GILL	Gillnet	OTHER
HAND	Handline	OTHER
HARP	Harpoon	OTHER
HS	Haul seine	OTHER
LL	Longline	LL
LLFB	Foreign-based longline	LL
LLHB	Home-based longline	LL
LLMB	Longline with mother boat	LL
MWT	Mid-water trawl (pelagic)	OTHER
MWTD	Mid-water paired trawl	OTHER
PS	Purse seine	PS
PSD	Double-boat purse seine	PS
PSFB	Purse seine catching large fish	PS
PSFS	Purse seine catching small fish	PS
PSG	Large purse seine	PS
PSLB	Purse seine using live bait	PS
PSM	Medium purse seine	PS
PSS	Small purse seine	PS
RR	Rod-and-reel	OTHER
RRFB	Rod-and-reel catching small fish	OTHER
RRFS	Rod-and-reel catching small fish	OTHER
SPHL	Sport fishing using hand line	OTHER
SPOR	Recreational fisheries (mostly rod and reel)	OTHER
SURF	Surface fisheries unclassified	OTHER
TL	Tended line	OTHER
TRAP	Trap	OTHER
TRAW	Trawl	OTHER
TROL	Troll	TROLL
UNCL	Unclassified (gears not reported)	OTHER

Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission (IATTC)

IATTC's code	Explanation	Code of major fishing gear
FX	Unknown	OTHER
LL	Longline	LL
LP	Baitboat	PL
PS	Purse seine	PS
Troll	Troll line	TROLL

Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC)

SPC's code	Explanation	Code of major fishing gear
G	Gillnet	OTHER
H	Handline	OTHER
L	Longline	LL
O	Unclassified (gears not reported)	OTHER
P	Pole and line	PL
R	Ring net	OTHER
S	Purse seine	PS
T	Troll	TROLL

Méthode de traitement : For each institution, which provided the data, one single computer file was created using the following codes:

1. acronym of the institution providing the data
2. name of the ocean or sea
3. fishing gear
4. species
5. stock
6. fishing nation (FAO short name)
7. year