By Atuna
In two years time, longline catches of bigeye halved in the Eastern Pacific Ocean (EPO). Data from the Inter-American Tuna Commission (IATTC) shows that when comparing the five first months of the year, 2009 catches are 48% lower than in 2007.
Longline catches represent around 30% of total bigeye harvest. Last year’s numbers were already a lot lower than 2007’s – for both longline and purse-seiner catches of the species.
Korea was the country that mostly contributed to the drop. Within the first five months of 2008, the Korea had fished 1.423 M/T of bigeye with its longline fleet. This year no catches were reported from this country so far, which is quite odd considering that only one Korean company, DongWon Fisheries, has five tuna longliners in that area.
