Seychelles tuna bulletin : first quarter 1994
Due to the inclusion of trips which started at the end of 1993 but which finished in early 1994 the 1993 total catch for the WIO has been revised upwards from 263,918 MT, published in the last Tuna Bulletin, to 275,058 MT. The initial estimate for the total WIO purse seine tuna catch for the first three months of 1994 is 61,159 MT (the figure of 70,000 MT published in the Globefish Bulletin 2/94 was based on an early estimate). However, this figure may also be revised upwards when trips starting in the first quarter of 1994 and finishing in second quarter are included in the next quarterly Tuna Bulletin of 1994. This compares with 71, 142 MT caught in the first three months of 1993. Some 2,173 days were fished in the first quarter of 1994 compared to 3,930 in the first quarter of 1993. Relative to the first quarter of 1993 this is mainly due to a considerable drop in the number of Japanese fishing days (from 734 to 19) and a reduction in French fishing days from 1267 to 627 (see Table 7.0). The number of French fishing days will increase when records at present in Madagascar are obtained. The mean catch per unit effort in the first quarter was 28.14 MT/fishing day. This compared with a mean CPUE for the first quarter of 1993 of 18.10 MT/fishing days. Yellowing comprised 73% (44,901 MT of 61,159 MT) of the catch compared to 55% (39,134 MT of 71,142 MT) of the total first quarters catch in 1993. Skipjack comprise 20% (12,215 MT) of the first quarter catch compared to 38% (27,025 MT) in the equivalent quarter of 1993. Readers should be aware that this catch composition is NOT scientific. It is based on the assessment of the fishermen who write the fishing log and maybe biased. The most busy month for transshipment at Victoria was March when 24 vessels landed a total 20,551 MT. Transshipment for the whole quarter was 47,462 MT or a mean of 753 MT per vessel by 63 purse seiners. In the same period last year some 50,166 MT was transshipped by 92 vessels at a rate of 545 MT per vessel. It should be noted that the figures in table 3 represent the transshipment of vessels whose trips ended in the month indicated NOT the actual month of physical transshipment of the catch.Extra tables (Table 6, 7 and 8) have been made in this edition to enable readers to compare CATCH, EFFORT and CPUE by flag and month without having to refer between tables. More graphics have also been included to enable CATCH, EFFORT and CPUE to be compared on a long time scale back to 1984 when records began. Graphics on a shorter time scale covering the past 27 months are also provided so that details of the previous two equivalent quarters are available for comparative purposes with the present one. Particular attention is drawn to the line graph of total purse seine EFFORT (in fishing days) which shows a steady rise since 1984. This reached a record level of 14,348 fishing days by all purse seiners recorded from the WIO in 1993.
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| Format: | Other biblioteca |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
1994
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| Subjects: | Purse seiners, Tuna fisheries, |
| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/1834/5179 |
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