Annex 3 - EU Portugal

During 2019 EU-Portugal active fishing fleet operating in the IOTC convention area consisted of only 3
pelagic longliners targeting swordfish mostly in the temperate southwest Indian Ocean. Overall, a
total of 1,544 MT were caught, of which 629 MT corresponded to swordfish, 711 MT to blue shark,
114 MT to shortfin mako, 52 MT to tuna, 21 MT to billfish (excluding swordfish) and 17 MT to other
species. In 2019, EU-Portugal kept fully implemented the data collection program, making use of two
major sources: onboard observers and official logbooks. In 2018, and within the EU data collection
framework, EU-Portugal continued the collection and revision of fisheries and biological data,
including historical catches, catch and effort, and catch at size, which were provided to IOTC
Secretariat in due time. The detailed observer data was fully reported in electronic format, including
all detailed data for the target, bycatch and vulnerable species such as sea-turtles, sea-birds and
marine mammals. EU-Portugal scientists produced and participated in a number of relevant working
documents to several IOTC Working Parties, which are described in this report.