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The number of active vessels in 2017 was 13 for longline fishery and 3 for purse seine fishery. With this fishing capacity, Korean tuna longline fishery caught 3,017 ton in 2017, which was 13% higher than that of 2016. The fishing efforts in 2017 were 6,463 thousand hooks and distributed in only the western Indian Ocean, while the fishing efforts averaged for 5 recent years (2013-2017) were 6,223 thousand hooks and distributed in the western tropical areas around 0-20°S as well as in the western and eastern areas around 20°S-40°S. Since 2015, some vessels have moved to the western tropical area between 5°N-10°S to fish for bigeye tuna and yellowfin tuna. As results, the catch of bigeye tuna increased, while the catch of albacore tuna decreased. Korean tuna purse seine fishery in the Indian Ocean recorded about 18,246 ton in 2017. In 2017, 3 vessels of Korean tuna purse seine fishery operated mainly in the western and central tropical areas around 10°N-10°S to fish for skipjack tuna and yellowfin tuna. The fishing efforts in 2017 were 697 sets, which mainly distributed in the western and central tropical areas around 40°E-70°E. In 2017, 2 scientific observers for longline fishery and 1 scientific observer for purse seine fishery were dispatched onboard for implementing observer program and scientific data collection, which carried out 5.9% and 8.4% of observer coverage in terms of the number of hooks and sets, respectively.
