Eastern Atlantic tuna – purse seine (French fleet)

The Eastern Atlantic tropical tuna French purse seine fishery improvement project targets Atlantic Ocean bigeye (Thunnus obesus), eastern Atlantic Ocean skipjack (Katsuwonus pelamis), and Atlantic Ocean yellowfin tuna (T. albacares) stocks on the Atlantic Ocean high seas and the Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZs) of Mauritania, Cape Verde, Senegal, Gambia, Guinea Bissau, Republic of Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Sao Tome, Gabon, and Angola.

The fishery sets on both free-school tuna or schools associated with floating objects (FOBs) either naturally occurring such as logs or artificial drifting fish aggregation devices (FADs). All vessels in the fishery are flagged to the European Union (EU) – France and are owned by the French fishing companies Compagnie Française du Thon Océanique (CFTO) and Via Océan. The vessels land in a number of places on the west coast of Africa: Ivory Coast (Abidjan), Tema (Ghana), Dakar (Senegal) and Mindelo (Cape Verde). The fishery is managed regionally by the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) and the EU’s Common Fisheries Policy. The fishing companies’ and Orthongel have further management measures in place and coastal states management measures also apply depending on where the vessels are operating.

The fishery is also currently in full MSC assessment for yellowfin and eastern Atlantic skipjack tuna, with the Announcement Comment Draft Report (ACDR) having been published in January 2023. This FIP will run concurrently with the MSC full assessment to primarily work on improving the necessary MSC Performance Indicators (PIs) for Atlantic bigeye tuna and address any conditions arising as a result of the MSC assessment process.

This FIP was previously part of the Eastern Atlantic Ocean tuna - purse seine FIP. The FIP began in 2018 with purse seine vessels flagged to France, Spain, and Ghana. Fleets in this project operate and are managed differently and have therefore progressed differently as they work towards achieving MSC fisheries certification. To that end, the FIP Participants made the decision to divide into their disparate elements so they may target fleet-specific issues and progress at rates appropriate to the individual fleets. Previous actions, updates and progress can be accessed here.