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Landings of tropical tuna were observed to have decreased in 2019 by 60.18 % as compared to 2018. This decrease in landings is attributed to many factors including early closure of the fishing season in early April 2019 because of low catches and unreliable prices of tuna in the market. Usually a voluntary two month closed season is observed between June and July, however, in 2019, the new fishing season was started only in late August. The closed season, therefore, remained effective for about four months (mid April to mid August). Extremely high seawater surface temperature (SST) during September to October (possibly an oceanic heat wave) resulted in poor catches of tuna, therefore, only a few tuna boats remained operational during this period. An extremely large jellyfish bloom of Crambionella orsini was observed during September and December (and even onward in 2020) forced fishermen to stop fishing operations during this period.
