Purse seine vessels account for about 66% of the world’s tuna catch. However, the number of purse seiners operating in the various oceans is not available from a single source.
In this paper we estimate the number and fishing capacity of authorized tuna purse seiners based primarily on information available from the five tuna Regional Fishery Management Organizations (RFMOs). After accounting for possible duplicate entries, we calculate that as of June 2024 there are at least 1,939 purse seiners fishing for tunas worldwide. This is surely an underestimate because many small-scale purse seiners or purse seiners operating in only one EEZ do not have to be listed on RFMO records of authorized fishing vessels.
Focusing on large-scale purse seiners (defined here as having 335 m3 fish hold volume or greater) that target tropical tunas (skipjack, yellowfin and bigeye), we calculate there are 650 such vessels with a combined fishing capacity of over 863,000 m3. The number of these vessels slightly decreased during the past year, but the fishing capacity increased by 3%.
Of those 650 large scale purse seine vessels fishing for tropical tunas, 504 are registered on the ISSF Pro Active Vessel Register (PVR), which represent 78% in number and 84% in fish hold volume (FHV). About 12% of these 650 large-scale vessels are authorized to fish in more than one RFMO, which should be taken into account in any efforts to manage fishing capacity at a regional level.
See the related infographic.
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