Statistics of the French purse seine fishing fleet targeting tropical tunas in the Indian Ocean (1981-2017)

In 2017, a total of 13 French vessels operated in the eastern Indian Ocean including 12 purse seiners and 1 supply vessel deploying FAD and managing a part of the French FAD stock at sea. The total capacity weighted by the months of activity for each vessel is 11944 t. The total nominal effort in 2017 was of 2928 fishing days and 2839 sets with 2150 sets on floating objects and 689 on free schools. In 2017, the percentage of sets was 76% and the catches reached 78% on Floating OBjet. The total catch of the French component of the EU purse seine fleet of the Indian Ocean was 66,945 t, being composed of 45%, 48%, and 7% of yellowfin tuna, skipjack tuna, and bigeye tuna respectively.