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Deep-frozen longline targeting for tropical tuna and frozen longline targeting albacore are the only two fishing gears used by Chinese fleets to catch tuna and tuna-like species in the IOTC waters. The total number of Chinese longline vessels operated in the IOTC waters in 2020 was 80. The number of active deep-frozen longline vessels decreased from 74 in 2019 to 72 in 2020. The tropical tunas catch (bigeye and yellowfin tuna) of Chinese longline fleet in 2020 was estimated at 7,293MT, which was 2,244 MT higher than that in 2019 (5,049MT). The number of frozen longline decreased from14 in 2019 to 8 in 2020. The albacore longline catch for 2020 was estimated at 3,763MT, higher than in 2019 (2,489MT). Both the logbook and observer programs are being implemented for the Chinese longline fleets. In 2020, three scientific observers were deployed on board longline vessels to collect data for both target and bycatch species as required.
