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Iran fishing grounds in southern part of the country is the most important resources for large pelagic species. There are 4 coastal provinces (Khozeastan, Boshehr, Hormozgan and Sistan& Blochestan Provinces) beside the Persian Gulf and Oman Sea where they are located between the longitudes from 48° 30' north to 61° 25' east. Iran, with an interest in fisheries has concluded a number of bilateral agreements that regulate fishing in the area (through RECOFI and bilateral agreement e.g. Iraq, Oman, Kuwait and etc.) For Iranian fishermen the Arabian Sea is the gateway to the northwest Indian Ocean and the opportunity to harvest tuna and other highly migratory large pelagic species. It has been a tradition for Iranian fishers to fish offshore and in the last few decades gillnet and purse seine fisheries have become the established fishing method for Iranian fishers in the international waters of the northwest of the Indian Ocean. So, Iran joint to the Indian Ocean Tuna Commission (IOTC) in 2002 and it has been one of the active countries in the commission.
In a briefed view the total amount of fish production including catch and aquaculture has been 1202086 tons in 2017, which around 724817 tons came from catch and 477269 tons from aquaculture. Around On this way around 131000 fishermen with 10493 different type of vessels including fishing boats, dhows and ships are active in gillnet, Purse seine, Trolling, Trawl and Wire-trap which are engaged in fishing operation according to time schedule during different fishing seasons in the coastal and offshore waters and landed their fish in 130 fishing harbors or landing areas. On this way, large pelagic species catch is one of the most important group of fish that are caught by Iranian fishermen. There are four fishing gear types which targeting large pelagic species in the IOTC area of competence , included gillnet, purse seine, long line (by traditional boats) and also some of small trolling boats in coastal fisheries.
The main fishing grounds for large pelagic species in southern part of the country are located in the coastal area of the Persian Gulf and Oman Sea. Total production of tuna and tuna like species (including by-catch and discards) was 296192 Mt In 2017, which 274589 Mt belongs to tuna and tuna-like fishes in the Indian Ocean. This amount of catch contains 75.1% (222279 Mt) of Tunas, 11.3% (33514 Mt) of Seerfish, 6.3% (18795 Mt) of Billfish, 1.2% (3623 Mt) different species of shark and 6.1% (17981 Mt) other species. Also around 93.6% of tuna and tuna like species catch comes from gillnet gear, while around 2.1% of catch belong to purse seiners and 1.5% comes from trolling vessels and 2.8% comes from small artisanal gillnetter as a seasonal and temporal long-liner where they are fish in coastal waters.
Iran, has been one of the active countries in tuna fisheries and has had a progressively trend in participation of IOTC programs and implementation of the resolutions. As, the amount of compliance with IOTC resolutions has rising year to year and has increased from 11% in 2011 to 71% in 2017. Although, Iran's tuna fisheries is an artisanal fisheries and majority of fishermen only are working for their livelihood, but during past decade, Iranian fisheries organization monitoring and control system are developed very well and the country intent to make more progress in implementation of responsible and sustainable fisheries.
