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In 2019, Mauritius had 3 purse seiners, 1 supply vessel and 15 semi-industrial longliners operating in the tuna fishery. The three 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. Ten out of the 15 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 21 fishing trips for a total of 167 fishing days and a deployment of 224574 hooks. The majority of the catch consisted of yellowfin (31%), albacore (24%) and swordfish (20%). Their total catch amounted to 58 tonnes. The CPUE was 0.26kg/ hook.
Ten semi-industrial longliners operated outside the EEZ and carried out 154 trips for a total of 1159 fishing days. They landed 746t of fish with a deployment of 1328892 hooks. The CPUE was 0.56kg/hook. Majority of their catch consisted of yellowfin (41%) followed by swordfish (34%). The area of operation was between latitudes13oS and 27oS and longitudes 34oE and 42oE.
The Mauritian purse seiners operated between latitudes 13oN to 13oS and longitudes 44o to 68oE. Total catch of the three purse seiners amounted to 27 082t comprising of 45% yellowfin, 47% skipjack and 7% bigeye tuna for 739 positive sets out of a total of 808 sets. Observers were deployed on the three Mauritian purse seiners for a total of 169 days at sea covering 181 sets.
Sampling exercises were carried out on local semi-industrial longliners. 806 fishes were sampled on the semi-industrial longliners operating inside the EEZ and 11583 fish were sampled from the semi-industrial longliners operating outside the EEZ and. In the artisanal fishery, 278 fishes were sampled for length frequency. Sampling exercises were also carried out on the Mauritian purse seiners when they called at Port Louis and 2621 fish were measured.
