This dataset lists catch of tuna species from the Commission for the Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission (IATTC) by pole-and-line vessels (baitboats) from 1978 to 2014. Catches are stratified by year, month, species, fishing gear, vessel flag reporting country, area (1° squares). It corresponds to the catch part of the IATTC catch-and-effort (task2) dataset.

This dataset was downloaded on the IATTC website. It was then restructured to be in line with the Sardara database structure (columns normalization, names, etc.). However the content of data and the code lists were kept exactly as their are available in the source dataset.

The description below (caracteristics, specific issues and problems that need to be taken into account) is extracted from the IATTC web page where the dataset has been downloaded.

Caracteristics, specific issues and problems that need to be taken into account :

Stratification by fishing mode (i.e. type of school used) is not available in this dataset, since IATTC confidentiality policy restricts the release of public domain data by both flag and set type.

The file contain data provided by Members and Cooperating Non-Members. The data on catch are as abstracted from vessel logbooks. The data on catch weight and species composition are not adjusted by data from other sources, such as unloadings or sets for which catch data is not available

Estimated EPO tuna catch totals are presented in the IATTC Fishery Status Reports (http://www.iattc.org/FisheryStatusReportsENG.htm). In accordance with the IATTC policy on confidentiality, data from flags with less than 3 vessels or less than 3 companies are grouped in the “Other” category in the “Flag” column.