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Tuna fisheries in Sri Lanka are developing rapidly with the expansion of offshore and deep sea /high seas fishing. Over 4,000 boats are currently engaged in tuna fishing, out of which around 700 boats are categorized as single day and operated in the coastal areas where as about 3,300 are operated offshore and high seas adjacent to the EEZ. The estimated total large pelagic fishery production in 2012 was 105,240 Mt and the majority of large pelagic catch, consists of tunas 66,840 Mt (63%) followed by billfish 8,730 Mt (8.5%), sharks 3180 Mt (3.0%) and Seer 620 Mt (0.5%). Among the different fishing gears used for catching large pelagic fish, large-mesh gillnet (GN) or long line (GN/LL) as secondary gear, were the widely used fishing gears in tuna fisheries. Gillnet cum long line combination contributes to more than 75 % of the total tuna fishing effort in the country. Yellow fin tuna is a commercially important species and economic regain in the country is low due to the insufficient catch rates and high operational cost. Exported quantity of tuna in 2012 was 6,250mt and 2,210mt to European Union, 2150mt to Japan. 66 percent from total was exported to EU in 2008 and it has declined to 45 percent in 2012.
The tropical tuna fishery is encouraged to increase national fish production to meet the local demand in view of full fill the requirements of nutrition gaps. The statistical system in Sri Lanka is to be further improved to meet the requirements of regional fishery management information and IOTC resolutions. The catch position data will be depicting the fishery resources availability around the country. This study reveals that the methodology developed could be effectively used to estimate and standardized CPUE to cater the stock assessment of tuna resources in IOTC area. Tropical tuna catches from gill net fishery has decreasing pattern due to the encouraging lone line fishery. The local lone line fishery catches from beyond EEZ shows increasing trend. The CPUE is calculated for boat trip and therefore, many limitations could be seen in standardization. The system also monitors the tuna catch and effort monthly at 5 grid level. Therefore, it is needed to strengthen the tuna catch data collection system to make efficient reporting for tropical tuna fishery resource management information. The proposed system will comply with response the IOTC compliance matters and data requirements. (Res 10/02, Mandatory statistical requirements, Res 05/05, concerning the conservation of Sharks) Further assistance is proposed to improve the scientific researches on by catches of sea birds, turtles etc. Several improvements were added to the existing data collection system with the assistance of IOTC/OFCF and BOBLME. It addressed collecting position data, species, catch composition, gear types, trip duration, weight, lengths and other important variables. Skilled of officers were enhanced. Improvement of reporting and analysis will be considered in 2014 and capacity of officers to be enhanced.
