Billfish fishery of Thailand

Thai tuna longline that composed of 3 tuna longlines in 2007 and 2 tuna longliners during 2008-2012. The main fishing ground was central and southern part of the Indian Ocean. This report was based on the data extracted from fishing longsheets which were delivered to Department of Fisheries, Thailand During 2007-2012, is summarized and calculated the hook rate in Catch Per Unit Effort (CPUE).
The fishing operations were recorded 2,276 fishing days. The highest total catch was in 2010 with 607.69 tonnes followed by 2012, 2007, 2011, 2009 and 2008, respectively (494.95,461.64, 370.39, 295.23 and 265.57 tonnes). The highest CPUE was found in 2010 with 13.62 fish/1,000 hooks followed by 2012 and 2007, respectively (10.80 and 10.20 fish/1,000 hooks). The major catch species wer bigeye tuna (Thunnus obesus) , yellowfin tuna (T. albacores) Albacore tuna (T. alalunga), swordfish and shark.
In 2012, the numbers of individual billfish were 736 individual fishes with 25.05 tonnes. The highest total catch of Billfish was in 2010 with 80.58 tonnes followed by 2008, 2009, 2012, 2011 and 2007, respectively (59.35, 54.63, 25.05, 16.00 and 8.23 tonnes) The highest CPUE was found in 2008 and 2010 with 1.0 fish/1000 hooks.