Reporting data to the IOTC

The IOTC has identified several datasets critical for monitoring tuna and tuna-like fisheries and analysing the status and trends of both the populations and the marine ecosystems that support them. These datasets must be reported by the IOTC CPCs following Article XI of the IOTC Agreement but they are also requested from any other Parties that fish in the IOTC Area of Competence for species managed by the IOTC.

Data Reporting Guidelines

The requirements for reporting scientific data to the IOTC are outlined in various IOTC Conservation and Management Measures (CMMs). Detailed descriptions of the relevant CMMs, the types of data required, and the applicable standards can be found in the IOTC Data Reporting Guidelines. These guidelines, based on the existing IOTC Data Requirements, are designed to facilitate accurate and timely data reporting to the IOTC.

Data Reporting Forms & Validators

To manage the data received from CPCs and other parties fishing in the IOTC Area of Competence for IOTC-managed species, the Secretariat has developed specific reporting forms for each dataset. The use of the IOTC Data Reporting Forms for submitting fisheries statistics to the IOTC became mandatory as of 2025. The forms include all mandatory metadata, data fields, and information on IOTC formats and standard code lists. Additionally, interactive validators have been created to enable CPCs to verify the contents of the forms before submission through e-MARIS. The URL links to the form-specific validators are available from the main page of the IOTC Data Reporting Forms.

Other Datasets

The IOTC Secretariat also receives operational fisheries data collected through the Regional Observer Scheme (ROS; Res. 22/04). Information on the collection and reporting of ROS data is available from the ROS main webpage. An overview of the current status of the ROS has been presented at the 26th session of the IOTC Scientific Committee in December 2023 (IOTC Secretariat 2023). For more information on the ROS dataset, please contact [email protected].

Additionally, the Compliance Section of the Secretariat is responsible for managing datasets related to the monitoring of authorised and active fishing vessels in the IOTC Area of Competence (Res. 10/08 and 19/04), landings and transhipments of fish products in fishing ports (Res. 16/11), and transshipments at sea (Res. 23/05). For more information on these datasets, please contact [email protected].

Reference Data

1- IOTC Data Reference Catalogue

The IOTC Reference Data Catalogue is a compilation of all IOTC reference data code lists used to categorise and describe the fisheries and biological datasets managed by the IOTC, including those collected through the Regional Observer Scheme (ROS).

Geospatial data layers are available for download as ESRI shapefiles, while tabular code lists can be downloaded as .csv files using the corresponding download buttons.

Tabular code lists can also be accessed directly from each domain ("admin", "biology", "data", "fisheries", "legacy", "socio_economics") using the following URL format: https://data.iotc.org/reference/*<version>*/domain/*<domain>*/codelists/*<codelist name>*_*<codelist_version>*.csv

# Example of R script for extracting the code list of fishing fleets

cl_fleets = utils::read.csv("https://data.iotc.org/reference/latest/domain/admin/codelists/FLEETS_1.0.0.csv")

## Example of R script for extracting the National Jurisdiction Areas

# Download the zipped ESRI shape file of a spatial layer
download.file(url = "https://data.iotc.org/reference/latest/domain/admin/shapefiles/IO_NJA_AREAS_1.0.0_SHP.zip", destfile = "IO_NJA_AREAS_1.0.0_SHP.zip")

# Unzip the contents locally
unzip("IO_NJA_AREAS_1.0.0_SHP.zip")

# Read the shapefile with the sf library
NJA_AREAS_SF = sf::st_read(dsn = "IO_NJA_AREAS_1.0.0.shp")

# Visualise the spatial layer
plot(NJA_AREAS_SF["CODE"])

2- GitHub repository of the Fisheries Data Interoperability Working Group

The IOTC tabular code lists are also available as a collection of .csv files, downloadable from the GitHub repository of the Fisheries Data Interoperability Working Group: https://github.com/fdiwg/fdi-codelists/tree/main/regional/iotc.

Option 1: Direct download from the repository. 

The "Raw" buttons provide the URLs to download the CSV files.

# Example of R script for extracting the code list of fishing fleets
cl_fleets = utils::read.csv("https://raw.githubusercontent.com/fdiwg/fdi-codelists/refs/heads/main/regional/iotc/admin/cl_fleets.csv")

Option 2: Install the fdi-codelists repository locally with RStudio

Download the ZIP archive from GitHub and unzip it, or clone the repository using Git:

git clone https://github.com/fdiwg/fdi-codelists.git

3- GitHub repository of the IOTC Secretariat

The IOTC tabular code lists are finally available as an R package, available from the GitHub repository of the IOTC Secretariat: https://github.com/iotc-secretariat/iotc-data-reference-codelists.

The R package can be installed directly from GitHub using the devtools package:

Option 1: Install directly from GitHub

# Install devtools if not already installed
install.packages("devtools")

# Install the IOTC data reference codelists package from GitHub
devtools::install_github("iotc-secretariat/iotc-data-reference-codelists")

Once installed, you can load the package with:

library(iotc.data.reference.codelists)

The package then provides access to all tabular code lists, e.g., fleets:

iotc.data.reference.codelists::FLEETS

Option 2: Build locally with RStudio

1- Download the ZIP archive from GitHub and unzip it, or clone the repository using Git:

git clone https://github.com/iotc-secretariat/iotc-data-reference-codelists.git

2- Open the project folder in RStudio (open the .Rproj file if available).

devtools::install()