Methodology for the monitoring of FOB and buoy use by French and Italian tropical tuna purse seiners in the Indian ocean

In this document, we present the methodology adopted by ORTHONGEL and its member fishing companies for the monitoring of FOB and operational buoy use in the Indian Ocean. In particular, we detail updates in purse seine fishing/FOB logbook that will allow a proper collection of information on FOB types and FOB activities and we detail the methodology recently adopted with buoy providers to ensure compliance with existing buoy limitations. We underline the need for a transparent and harmonized control of the number of operational buoys used by purse seiners that would address potential issues of under-reporting through cycles of activation/deactivation. We propose minimum standards of operational buoy monitoring that would ensure that a given vessel does not circumvent buoy limitations with “ghost buoys”.