Report on the availability, completeness and quality of catch data for all fleets in the IOTC database

PURPOSE

To provide information to the Technical Committee on Allocation Criteria (TCAC) that would allow it to determine if the statistics available at the IOTC Secretariat are reliable enough to derive historical time series of catches for albacore, bigeye tuna, skipjack tuna, yellowfin tuna and swordfish, that could be used in an allocation. Information is provided as:

 Time series estimates of total annual catches by country and species, including:
o Coastal fisheries (Box 1): estimates of annual catches by country and species;
o Surface and longline fisheries (Box 1): estimates of annual catches by country, area and species, in

particular total catch within Economic Exclusive Zones (EEZ) and high seas.  Estimates of total catches by country, species, and month, in close-to-real time.