Seychelles tuna bulletin: third quarter 1990

Abstract

The number of purse seiners active in the Western Indian Ocean increased from a low of 41 at the end of the last quarter to 45 vessels in September. Fishing results improved slightly with daily catch rates for the third quarter averaging 22 MT, increasing from 17.7 MT/day in August to 31.5 MT/day in September. These results are considerably better than those for the same period last year when it averaged 16 MT/day. The fishing pattern for the third quarter showed that fishing effort was concentrated between 5 degrees north and 5 degrees south of the Equator in the vicinity of the Northern sector of the Seychelles EEZ. Fifty five percent of the third quarter catch was made up by skipjack tuna compared to 58% for the second quarter. This is partly due to the high catch of yellow fin during July (76% of total catch). However the proportion of yellow fin tuna declined sharply to 22% in August and 15% in September. The Iumulative catch by purse seiners operating in the Western Indian Ocean as determined from seiner logbooks received by the 30th of September 1990 now stands at 121,390 MT.