Mauritius - National Report 2019

In 2018, Mauritius had 2 purse seiners, 1 supply vessel and 13 semi-industrial longliners operating in the tuna fishery. The two purse seiners are large freezer vessels having an overall length of 89.4 M each. The longliners are semi-industrial boats less than 24 Metres in length. 8 out of the 13 semi-industrial longliners operated outside the Mauritius EEZ and the remaining 5 longliners operated exclusively inside the EEZ.

The semi-industrial longline fleet operating exclusively inside the EEZ of Mauritius comprised 5 boats which undertook 23 fishing trips for a total of 213 fishing days and a deployment of 296620 hooks. The majority of the catch consisted of yellowfin (35.5%), albacore (28.4%) and swordfish (16%). Their total catch amounted to 130 tonnes.  The CPUE was 0.43kg/ hook.

Eight semi-industrial longliners operated outside the EEZ carried out 118 trips for a total of 899 fishing days. They landed 691t of fish with a deployment of 1148857 hooks. The CPUE was 0.6kg/hook. Majority of their catch consisted of swordfish (44%) followed by yellowfin (30%). The area of operation was between latitudes13^oS and 27^oS and longitudes 34^oE and 42^oE.

The Mauritian purse seiners operated between latitudes 13^oN to 15^oS and longitudes 43^o to 80^oE. Total catch of the two purse seiners amounted to 22,529t comprising of 50% yellowfin, 41% skipjack and 8% bigeye tuna for 612 positive sets out of a total of 650 sets. Observers were deployed on the two Mauritian purse seiners for a total of 139 days at sea.

Sampling exercises were carried out on local semi-industrial longliners. 783 fish were sampled from the semi-industrial longliners operating outside the EEZ and 1891 fishes were sampled on the semi-industrial longliners operating inside the EEZ. 262 fishes were sampled in the artisanal fishery for length frequency. Sampling exercises were also carried out on the Mauritian purse seiners.