The shark by-catch of tuna longline fisheries in Southern Indian Ocean of Java, Indonesia

Abstract

In relation to the achievement of the target SDG’s No. 14, the sustainable shark fisheries management need to implement. As a part of the tuna fisheries by-catch, a high number of shark resources have been caught in the Indian Ocean waters. One of the main vessels of tuna catchers in the Southern Indian Ocean of Java is the tuna longline from Cilacap. This paper aims to analyze the shark by-catch of tuna longline in the Indian Ocean in the south Java that landed in Cilacap. The research data was obtained from daily recording activities of fishing vessel loading activities by Cilacap Ocean Fisheries Port staff during the period of 2013-2017. The analysis was done through data tabulation, graphical approaches, and data trend analysis through the availability of time series data. The data analyzed include fleet development, fishing ground, catch composition and CPUE value. The results of the analysis show that there are about eight species of sharks that are by-catch of tuna longline from Cilacap. The highest shark by-catch occurred in April with CPUE averaging 9 kg/day/vessel. The blue shark (Prionace glauca) is the dominant shark catch which reaches 66% of the total sharks catch.