The number of tuna purse seine fishing vessels has decreased globally, but the catch has increased instead of decreased

In recent years, the size of tuna purse seine fishing vessels has been shrinking, but surprisingly, the catch of tuna has been steadily increasing. According to the latest data from the International Seafood Sustainability Foundation (ISSF), although the number of large tuna purse seine fishing vessels has slightly decreased, the fishing capacity has increased instead of decreased. This phenomenon has posed new challenges to the sustainable development of global tuna fisheries. The total amount of tuna caught in the world each year is as high as 5.2 million tons, of which purse seine fishing vessels undertake about 66% of the fishing tasks. ISSF defines fishing vessels with a fish tank volume of more than 335 cubic meters as large purse seine fishing vessels, which mainly catch skipjack, yellowfin tuna and bigeye tuna in tropical waters. Although the number of such vessels has decreased from 652 last year to 650 this year, their total fishing capacity has increased from 841,000 ...