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A total of 11 longliners operated in the IOTC area during the year 2019. Longline vessels have an average of 32 meters in length, 174 of TRB and 576 CV. The catch of the target species, swordfish was of 2,097 t and other important species were 3,073 t of sharks, 142 t of tunas, 87 t of billfish and 62 t of other fish species. A total of 300 swordfish have been individually sized during 2019 as well as 297 bycatch individuals. Biological sampling as sex at size data and others has been also obtained for swordfish as well as for some bycatch species.
Concerning to purse seiners, ending the third quarter of 2019 a new vessel has joined the Spanish freezer fleet. This recent addition has increased the carrying capacity by more than 2400 t. Nevertheless the total volume of catch of the fleet during 2019 (172 700 t) was 200 t lower than the preceding year, but above the average catch of the previous ten years (approximately 137 thousand tons, about 26% of total catch). This increase in the catches is mainly comprised by SKJ. Thus, 2018 and 2019 have been the years with the highest volume of catch of SKJ of the Spanish fleet.
