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South Africa has two commercial fishing sectors that target tuna – the Large Pelagic Longline and the Tuna Pole-line (baitboat) sectors. The latter sector mainly targets (Thunnus alalunga) and to a lesser degree yellowfin tuna (Thunnus albacares) and rarely operates in the IOTC Area of Competence. The Large Pelagic Longline sector comprises two fleets with different histories: The South African-flagged Large Pelagic Longline vessels that traditionally used swordfish (Xiphias gladius) targeting methods, and the Japanese-flagged vessels that operate under joint-ventures and fish for South African right holders. The Japanese-flagged vessels typically target tropical tunas and southern bluefin tuna (Thunnus maccoyii) with their effort focused in the Indian Ocean. In 2020, a total of 15 longline vessels were active in the IOTC area of competence, which is less than in 2019. Effort decreased substantially - the number of hooks set in 2020 was 572 461, which is less than half that of number set in 2019 (1 355 677). Consequently, catches decreased from 2019 to 2020 for all species; albacore (23%), southern bluefin tuna (27%), bigeye tuna (49%), yellowfin tuna (56%), blue shark (58%), swordfish (74%) and shortfin mako shark (96%). There was no Tuna Pole-line effort in the Indian Ocean area of competence in 2020. Observer coverage exceeded IOTC requirements as 18% (100 179 hooks) of hooks set in the IOTC area of competence in 2020 were observed.
