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Pelagic longline and purse seine are the two main fishing methods used by Australian vessels to target tuna and billfish in the Indian Ocean Tuna Commission (IOTC) Area of Competence. The number of active longliners and levels of fishing effort are relatively low due to reduced profitability, primarily as a result of lower fish prices and higher operating costs. In 2018, two Australian longliners from the Western Tuna and Billfish Fishery and three longliners from the Eastern Tuna and Billfish Fishery operated in the IOTC Area of Competence. They caught 11.9 t of albacore (Thunnus alalunga), 45.7 t of bigeye tuna (Thunnus obesus), 37.8 t of yellowfin tuna (Thunnus albacares), 161.2 t of swordfish (Xiphius gladius) and 0.5 t of striped marlin (Kajikia audax). In 2018, 0.07 t of shark was landed by the Australian longline fleet operating in the IOTC Area of Competence and 6 599 sharks were discarded/released. In addition, 13.0% of hooks deployed in the WTBF were observed with electronic monitoring in the 2018 calendar year. The actual catch of southern bluefin tuna (Thunnus maccoyii) in the purse seine fishery was 5367 t in 2018. There was no skipjack tuna (Katsuwonus pelamis) caught by purse seine fishing.
