Tunabio: biological traits of tropical tuna and bycatch species caught by purse seine fisheries in the Western Indian and Eastern Central Atlantic Oceans

Along with the development of the tropical tuna purse seine fishery from the 1960s in the Atlantic Ocean and from the 1980s in the Indian Ocean, many projects and studies have been conducted to improve knowledge about the biology, migrations, and dynamics of the stocks of target and non-target (i.e., bycatch) species taken in these fisheries. Since the 2000s, the European Union (EU) has been supporting Member States in the collection of biological data on species caught by their purse seine and pole and line fisheries, thus making it possible to have long-time series of data. These data are essential to monitor the status of the fisheries and fuel the assessment models used by the tuna Regional Fisheries Management Organisations (tRFMOs) for the sustainable management and conservation of the fish stocks under their mandate. We combined historical (1974-1999) and current (2003-2020) data sets on the biology of tropical tunas and bycatch fish caught by large-scale purse seiners in the Eastern Atlantic Ocean (EAO) and Western Indian Ocean (WIO). The resulting Tunabio database contains all available morphometric and biological data collected on more than 80,000 fish individuals.We deeply thank all the persons from Amexpert, CRO, IEO, SFA and IRD who contributed in the collection and/or management of the data included in Tunabio: Adeline M, Agnissan AR, Ahissi V, Albaret JJ, Amatcha AH, Angui KJP, Areso JJ, Ariz J, Assan C, Assan FN, Bach P, Ban Y, Bard FX, Barrigah S, Bayayoko I, Beugre D, Boniface P, Chavance P, Chérel Y, Coulibaly D, Damiano A, de Molina AD, Dewals P, Doffou YC, Edoukou A, Elisabeth M, Emerey C, Esparon J, Fonteneau A, Gaertner D, Gbeazare DA, Gnadou Z, Hallier JP, Hassani S, Hervé A, Hoareau L, Ibanez L, Irié YD., Karpinski B, Komenan K, Kouadio D, Kouakou K, Laporte T, Lesage Lesperance M, Marsac F, Mathiot E, Médieu A, Ménard F, N'Da K, N'Guessan Y, Oussou KH, Pernak M, Pianet R, Poris D, Potier M, Rose Ra, Rose Rb, Roucou P, Stephen A, Stéquert B, Zudaire I. The sampling was done with the help of the ship-owners (CFTO, Via Ocean and SAPMER) and the support of producer organisation ORTHONGEL. We also thank the IOT Ltd., SCODI and "Pêche et Froid" canneries for giving access to their production chains. Finally, we thank the IEO and SFA for access to the logbooks of their fleet. The data collected through the Data Collection Framework were funded by both IRD and the European Union under EMFF