About 30 researchers from different countries around the world gather this week at the premises of Azti -Tecnalia in Guipuzcoa, Spain, to assess the status of the population of the tuna species bigeye tuna (Thunnus obesus).
Scientists from Brazil, Uruguay, USA, Japan, Mauritania, Morocco, Ghana, Senegal, Portugal, Taiwan and Cape Verde, among others, participate in the annual meeting of the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tuna (ICCAT), where they unite their research on the status of this species, reported Azti -Tecnalia in a statement.
Bigeye tuna, along with yellowfin and skipjack, is one of the tropical tuna species exploited by purse seine freezers in Indian and Atlantic oceans, as well as the live bait fleet based in Dakar (Senegal).
During 2008, the Basque fleets of tuna freezers and live bait caught about 60,000 and 6,000 tons of these three tropical tuna species, respectively.
However, bigeye tuna is not the main tuna species fished by the tropical purse seining fleet nor of the live bait fleet, which are mainly catching skipjack and yellowfin.
