The document provides an overview of the consolidated knowledge about fisheries catching billfish in the Indian Ocean since the early 1950s based on a range of data sets collected by the Contracting Parties and Cooperating Non-Contracting Parties (CPCs) of the IOTC and curated by the IOTC Secretariat. Additional details on the five billfish species under IOTC management mandate are provided in separate documents prepared for this meeting.