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The document provides an overview of the consolidated knowledge about fisheries catching swordfish (Xiphias gladius) in the Indian Ocean since the early 1950s based on a range of data sets collected by Contracting Parties and Cooperating Non-Contracting Parties (CPCs) of the IOTC and curated by the IOTC Secretariat. The quality of the nominal catches of swordfish is considered to be good and overall the best among the five billfish species under IOTC mandate. The available fisheries statistics show that swordfish are mostly caught in both large-scale and coastal longline fisheries although gillnet fisheries have increased their catches over the last decade. Catches of large-scale longline fisheries have shown a steady decrease since 2004 while longline catches from the areas of national jurisdiction of Sri Lanka and India to a lesser extent have sharply increased since 2010. Information available on discarding practices collected through the IOTC Regional Observer Program shows that discarding in longline fisheries is mostly driven by size in some fleets. Discarding in coastal fisheries interacting with the species is poorly known but considered to be negligible. Information available on the spatial distribution of catch and effort has substantially improved over the last decade, particularly for coastal fisheries. Consolidated data show that swordfish are caught across all the Indian Ocean although the main fishing grounds appear to be located in the western Indian Ocean and around the coasts of Sri Lanka and India. The reporting of size-frequency data has improved in recent years, particularly thanks to the data reported for the coastal longline fishery of Sri Lanka.
