Tuna behaviour at anchored FADs inferred from Local Ecological Knowledge (LEK) of pole-and-line tuna fishers in the Maldives.

ABSTRACT: The Maldives tuna fishery landings in 2018 were 148, 000 t and accounted for nearly a quarter of the global pole-and-line tuna catch. This fishery partially relies on a network of 55 anchored fish aggregating devices (AFADs) deployed around the archipelago. About one-third of the total pole-and-line tuna catch is harvested at AFADs. Although the AFAD fishery has existed for 35 years, knowledge on the behaviour of tuna in the AFAD array is still limited, precluding the development of science-based fishery management. In this study, local ecological knowledge (LEK) of fishers was used to improve our understanding of tuna behaviour, through personal interviews of 54 pole-and-line fishers from different parts of the archipelago. Interview results suggest that during the northeast monsoon tuna

SUBMITTER: Jauharee AR 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8321119 | biostudies-literature | 2021

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature