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Deep-frozen longline targeting for tropical tuna and frozen longline targeting albacore are the only two fishing gears used by Chinese fleets to catch tuna and tuna-like species in the IOTC waters. The total number of Chinese longline vessels operated in the IOTC waters in 2019 was 88. The number of active deep-frozen longline vessels decreased from 75 in 2018 to 74in 2019. The tropical tunas catch (bigeye and yellowfin tuna) of Chinese longline fleet in 2019 was estimated at 5,049MT, which was 3,648 MT lower than that in 2018(8,697MT). The number of frozen longline increased from 10 in 2018 to 14 in 2019. The albacore longline catch for 2019was estimated at 2,489MT, lower than in 2018(5,449MT). Both the logbook and observer programs are being implemented for the Chinese longline fleets. In 2019, four scientific observers were deployed on board longline vessels to collect data for both target and bycatch species as required.
