EASTERN PACIFIC OCEAN YELLOWFIN TUNA - HANDLINE

The fleet. The fishery is made up of Panamanian-flagged, semi-industrial handline vessels fishing for yellowfin tuna in Panama's Pacific waters, typically 20–40 nautical miles off the coast in the Gulf of Chiriquí area. Vessels land at the ports of Vacamonte and Pedregal, trips usually last 15–17 days, and all vessels carry VMS. The project's unit of assessment covers 13 vessels, out of more than 340 handline vessels registered with ARAP.

​

A hand-tended, highly selective method. Unlike conventional longlining, each hook is baited by hand, thrown over the side and held until a tuna bites, when the crew set the hook manually. Only then is that line paid out and a new hook deployed; if nothing bites, the hook is pulled back and tried again. Hooks are therefore almost never left soaking unattended, and the crew effectively choose what they catch at the point of hooking. Circle hooks are used, and the gear works in the upper water column with no contact with the seabed.

​

Bait. Crews catch live jack around the vessel to use as hook bait, and use frozen sardine as chum to draw tuna to the boat. Vessels also search out natural floating objects, such as tree trunks, that tuna gather around. A typical trip is split between several days finding bait, several days finding fish and three to four days fishing.

​​

What is caught. A 12-month electronic monitoring pilot on four vessels (September 2023 to August 2024; 23 trips and 308 days at sea) found that 94% of retained fish were yellowfin tuna, with small numbers of mahi mahi, bigeye and albacore. Catches peak around November and dip in the first months of the year, when more mahi mahi are taken. Discards were around 2.5% of the catch, mostly undersized yellowfin, and over 80% of these were released alive.

​

The stock. Eastern Pacific yellowfin tuna is managed by the Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission (IATTC). The latest assessment shows a healthy stock, with spawning biomass well above its limit reference point and fishing pressure below the level that would deliver maximum sustainable yield.

​

Landing and traceability. Catch is landed only between 08:00 and 16:00, with inspectors from the Panama Maritime Authority (AMP) and ARAP present to check volumes against declarations and VMS records against logbooks. Fish are offloaded into bins kept separate for each vessel and sold whole to processing plants.