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The Maldives tuna fishery comprises of four main components; pole-and-line, handline, longline and troll line. In terms of total landings, livebait pole-and-line is still the most important gear for tunas. The main target species is skipjack tuna (Katsuwonus pelamis) and yellowfin tuna (Thunnus albacares), but small amounts of juvenile bigeye tuna (Thunnus obesus), (about 5-10%) is caught along with yellowfin tuna. Handline fishery is a relatively new gear, which targets large yellowfin tuna (> 70 cm FL) from the surface (<10m). Following termination of joint venture licencing in 2010, a fully Maldivian-flagged longline fishery is now established. Troll fishery is minor and used to target mainly neritic species of kawakawa (Euthynnus affinis) and frigate tuna (Auxis thazard), but occasionally also caught skipjack and yellowfin tuna.
The pole-and-line and handline fleets operate within about 100 miles although historically, the fleet operated closer, and returned to the home island daily. The foreign licensed longline fleet (1985-2010) operated in the outer waters of the EEZ, beyond 75 miles. With the Longline Regulation, the fishery was limited to 100 miles and beyond and into the high seas. The trolling fleet, still operates in the coastal areas and mostly within the atolls.
Maldives reported a total of 139,000 t of tunas in 2017, comprising of skipjack, yellowfin, bigeye, frigate and kawakawa. Pole-and-line fishery landed 99% of skipjack tuna in 2017 (almost 88,600 t), and was the second most important gear for yellowfin tunas, landing 35% of all yellowfin tuna caught (17,500 t) in 2017. Handline gear almost exclusively lands yellowfin tuna (30,562 t in 2017) which represented 98% of all species landed by the gear. Longline catch of tunas increased by 66% from 2016, landing 1,961 t comprising of 1,269 t of yellowfin tuna and 691 t of bigeye tuna.
Catches of skipjack registered an increase in 2017 relative to 2016. Recent catches have been of the order of 68,000 – 88,000 t, still much less than the catch recorded in 2006. Caches of yellowfin are increasing, due to the growing handline fishery although 2017 reported a slight drop in catch. No specialized vessel is required for handline fishing hence many pole-and-line vessels now carry both sets of gears and switch target fishery and gear depending on fishing opportunities.
Maldives pole-and-line and handline tuna fishery have minimal impact on the ecosystem. Catch and interactions with Endangered, Threatened and Protected (ETP) species and other species of ecological importance is virtually non-existent. Sharks bycatch and turtles are reported from the longline fishery, which has strict measures to report and release those that are caught. In addition, measures to mitigate bird entanglement in the longline gear are mandated by law. Logbooks for all the tuna fisheries have provisions to report catch and interactions of non-targeted and ETP species. Marine Research Centre currently conducts scientific observations of fishing trips that allow verification of logbook reported data.
The national data collection was based on complete enumeration system, which is now replaced by a modern logbook data collection system. The logbooks, introduced in 2010 was revised and now has provisions to record catch and effort, catch of bycatch and non-target as well as Endangered, Threatened and Protected species, and also catch and effort data for bait fishery. Introduction of the logbooks was a significant improvement to accommodate the changing fishing patterns and data requirements. A web-enabled database is now online and allows compilation and processing of catch and effort data. The database is also used to record tuna purchases by the exporters and also help maintain records of active fishing vessel and fishing licenses. Vessel monitoring system covers 100% of the longline vessels and trips and a number of PL and HL vessels. In addition, the observer data collected from pole-and-line and handline fisheries enable verification of fishermen reported data.
A number of donor and local funded programs are being implemented to improve fishery and biological data collection, monitoring and management of the fisheries. The programs are geared towards improving national reporting and compliance to IOTC Conservation and Management Measures and towards understanding and minimising impacts of fisheries on the ecosystem.
