Local market of the tropical purse seine fishery: update and perspective for its assessment in Abidjan

Part of the tuna catch of purse seiners, not sold to the canneries, is landed with other bycatch species towards another commercial flow. This local flow better known as “Faux poisson” is an important socio-cultural and economic market for Ivory Coast and neighboring countries. Yet, Faux poisson catches landed to this local market increased this last decade since the development of FAD fishing in the mid-nineties. Regarding major tuna species, the catch landed in the local market is mainly composed of small individuals which are not accounted for in the species composition and in catch at size estimates from conventional sampling. Because of the difficulties of the data collection this portion of tropical tuna landing is ignored in the stock assessment models. The need of improve knowledge is so of prime importance to better assess the sustainability of the fishery and the ecosystem. The document presents the main results of recent research on local market flow landed in Abidjan by purse seiners French fleet in the eastern Atlantic. Data collection improvement and perspective for species composition assessment and catch at size are further discusse