| Sampling operations are not routinely conducted in France to monitor the landings of bluefin tuna caught by purse seiners in the Mediterranean. The length, weight and age frequencies of bluefin caught by this fleet are predicted based on sale records, length-at-age and weight-length relations, trends in fishing and natural mortality rates, and other ancillary data. The resulting length frequencies are more accurate than those predicted by Liorzou and Bigot (1992) using a simpler algorithm, and are spread more evenly across adjacent size classes. Catch-per-unil-effort (CPUE) was expressed as the numbers of age 2 bluefin caught per successful seine fishing trip in the Gulf of Lions fall fishery. CPUE indices were computed by several methods, and compared to... |
