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Maldivians have been catching tuna for nearly 1000 years from the coastal waters, free swimming schools and around drifting objects in the Indian Ocean. Tuna catches in the Maldives reached its peak in 2006 with a reported catch of 166,000t (138,000t of skipjack and 23,000t of yellowfin tuna). The pole-and-line fishery contributes 75-80% of all tuna landings in the country. The remaining is caught by handline, troll line and longline. In the past the tuna fishery had some difficulty in attracting young people to work on the vessels. But with the increasing price of tuna in the world markets the youth are keener to engage in the tuna fishery. Although there is no shortage of fishermen to work on the vessels the fishery is now facing a number of challenges. The increasing oil price and the declining catches have forced several fishers to abandon the tuna fishery. The boom in the tuna fishery in the middle of the last decade resulted in fishers building larger vessels and install bigger engines. The decline in fishery has made operation of these larger vessels uneconomical forcing the fishers to abandon these vessels. Another challenge is the lack of adequate livebait resources. Increasing size of the vessels has also put more pressure on the livebait resources. Local decline in livebait resources in some parts of the Maldives has forced the fishers to collect livebait from far away atolls resulting in an increase in the operation cost. Difficulty in obtaining ice and selling their catch was also highlighted by some fishers. In some seasons due to the increased amount of tuna landings in the country the price of tuna becomes very low making it uneconomical for the fishers to operate their vessels. It was suggested by some fishers that the handline tuna fishery targeting large yellowfin has also affected the pole-and- line tuna fishery but analysis of logbook data from the past two years has not shown a decline in catch landing in one fishery with an increase in landing in the other fishery.
