Annual amount of fish caught and retained

Best scientific estimates of nominal catch by IOTC species, gear and vessel flag reporting country for 1950-2023

This dataset corresponds to the latest version of the ‘best scientific estimates’ of annual catches in live weight equivalent for the 16 IOTC species, aggregated by year, IOTC statistical area and reporting country flag, and fully disaggregated by species and fishing gear. Data are reported by calendar year and extend back to the 1950s, when industrial longlining started in the Indian Ocean.

The breakdown by species or gear is performed by using alternate sources of information available to the Secretariat such as statistical publications, fishery bulletins and other sources of information (e.g. historical catches and proxy fleets and gears).

Data might differ from the information originally provided by CPCs because, under certain circumstances, the Secretariat can also perform a preliminary re-estimation of both species and gear composition for some strata for which known issues exist in terms of data collection and reporting procedures at national level. The applied re-estimation procedures are performed in agreement with the IOTC Scientific Committee and might be subject to future revisions.

The dataset is used for stock assessment purposes and also published on the dedicated meeting pages for each IOTC Working Party: it is available in spreadsheet format (Microsoft Excel) and users are invited to refer to the NOTES worksheet for any additional information concerning the limits of applicability and the processing procedures used for the compilation of this dataset.