Chapter I Intro & Objectives - SPREP

PHOENIX ISLANDS PROTECTED AREA MANAGEMENT PLAN
Chapter III. Background, 5. Fisheries Resources
Draft 1 March 2007
Langley (2003) noted that albacore was also taken by the longline fleet in the Phoenix and
Line EEZ areas. Langley (2003) suggested that higher albacore landings were possible in the
southern Phoenix and Line EEZ areas. However, in recent years, albacore has become a
minor component of longline catches in the Phoenix and Line EEZ areas. For the Phoenix
EEZ area, albacore catch rates were highest in June to August.
Most of the pole-and-line catch and effort in Kiribati was in the Gilbert EEZ area, but in
some years, significant catches were obtained from the Phoenix EEZ area (Langley 2003).
In the Phoenix EEZ area, annual purse seine skipjack tuna catches were negatively correlated
with ENSO (El Niño Southern Oscillation) conditions (Langley 2003). Low catches were
related to strong positive SOI (La Niña), while high purse seine catches were related to El
Niño conditions. The Phoenix and Line EEZ areas represent the eastern extremity of the
distribution of skipjack, therefore the availability of this species was more sensitive to SOI
conditions.
The CUPE for bigeye was comparable between the three EEZ areas of Kiribati (including the
Phoenix EEZ area) (Langley 2003).
Langley (2003) presented a summary of purse activities and catches within the Phoenix
Islands portion of the Kiribati EEZ from 1982 to 2001 (see Table III-5.14 below).
Table III-5.14. Number of purse-seine vessles, fishing effort (sets), and catch (t x 1000)
of skipjack, yellowfin, and bigeye for the Phoenix Islands
portion of the Kiribati EEZ from 1982 to 2001.
(source: Langley 2003)
Year Vessels sets skipjack yellowfin Bigeye
1982 - 53 0.6 0.3 0.0
1983 - 532 8.8 5.9 0.0
1984 - 2 0.0 0.0 0.0
1985 3 17 0.1 0.0 0.0
1986 7 211 2.2 0.1 0.0
1987 9 101 1.7 1.0 0.0
1988 7 0 0.0 0.0 0.0
1989 9 0 0.0 0.0 0.0
1990 35 617 8.7 9.9 0.0
1991 42 884 20.8 0.3 0.0
1992 46 1,447 35.9 5.3 0.0
1993 33 596 9.2 0.4 0.0
1994 59 2,645 42.0 14.7 0.0
1995 16 6 0.2 0.0 0.0
1996 26 172 4.8 0.7 0.2
1997 100 1,178 18.0 10.3 0.2
1998 47 922 27.0 2.2 0.1
1999 42 545 22.4 3.9 0.7
2000 39 707 16.1 5.2 0.2
2001 - 422 10.2 2.3 0.2
*- data not available.
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