Asia-Pacific Fishery Commission

Bycatch in small-scale tuna fisheries: a global study

Category Marine Capture Fisheries

 

Gillett, R. Bycatch in small-scale tuna fisheries: a global study. FAO Fisheries and Aquaculture Technical Paper. No. 560. Rome, FAO. 2011. 116p. The aim of the study was to quantify catches of tuna and bycatch in small-scale pelagic fisheries. Additional goals were to identify on a global scale information gaps, major issues and management concerns associated with these fisheries and their bycatch. The study made estimates of tuna and non-tuna catches in the small-scale fisheries of 181 ocean areas. The total amount of tuna produced by these fisheries was around 681 000 tonnes per year in the mid-2000s. About 753 000 tonnes of non-tuna was produced by those same fisheries. The major priorities for improving our understanding of bycatch in small-scale pelagic fisheries are improved coverage of bycatch by the tuna regional fisheries management organizations (RFMOs) that collect such information, increased involvement of the other tuna RFMOs in small-scale pelagic fisheries, verification of the high reported catches from small-scale pelagic fisheries in Indonesia, and greater technical details on the small-scale pelagic fisheries that take sensitive species.