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In 2012, the European Union and associated flags purse seine fishing fleet of the Indian Ocean was composed of 37 vessels of individual carrying capacity >800 t, which all represented a total carrying capacity of more than 45,000 t. The total cumulated nominal effort was about 9,500 and 7,800 fishing and searching days, respectively. The total number of fishing sets was about 9,000, with about 5,600 realised on FAD-associated schools (i.e. >60%). Overall, the capacity and nominal effort of the fleet have remained stable during the recent years while the total catches have significantly dropped from more than 260,000 t during 2009-2011 to less than 230,000 t in 2012. The decline in catch is mainly explained by a combination of a major decrease in the number of sets per day and catch rates of skipjack on FAD-associated schools, the catch of skipjack per positive set being the lowest observed since 1984, i.e. 15 t set−1. Catch rates of skipjack on free-swimming schools also strongly decreased, which resulted in an overall decrease of skipjack catch by more than 40% between 2009-2011 and 2012. Meanwhile, catch rates of yellowfin on both FAD-associated and free-swimming schools increased in the recent years, resulting in a total catch of yellowfin that increased in 2012 to 130,000 t. The strong reduction in the number of FAD sets resulted in a total catch of bigeye that reached 16,500 t in 2012.
