Pacific Tuna Tagging Project, Phase 2 (Central Pacific) cruise CP-11, first leg: 9th September to 6th October 2015 Summary report.

The Central Pacific (CP) tagging cruises are part of the Pacific Tuna Tagging Programme (PTTP) that started in August 2006 with the objective of releasing tagged tropical tunas throughout the WCPO and concentrated in the latitudes where the tuna stocks are mostly harvested, approximately 10⁰ N to 10⁰ S. These CP cruises were designed to catch and tag tuna in areas where pole-and-line fishing gear is not efficient due to the absence of suitable bait grounds. Using specific trolling gears developed in Hawaii and targeting the NOAA TAO oceanographic buoys anchored east of the Date Line, and more recently drifting FADs, the CP tagging cruises have improved the overall spatial coverage of PTTP tag releases and increased the number of tagged bigeye tuna that are not commonly caught by pole-and-line gear in the western part of the WCPO.
Ten CP cruises have already been achieved, using Hawaii and Tonga-based fishing vessels; these have tagged and released close to 38,000 tuna, mostly bigeye (90%), on the TAO buoys anchored along the meridians 140⁰W, 155⁰W, 170⁰W and 180⁰W and between 5⁰N and 5⁰S.
This report summarizes activities during the 28 days of the first leg of an eleventh CP cruise, named hereafter CP-11, on the Hawaii-based FV Gutsy Lady 4. This longline vessel was chartered for the first time but the captain previously had the charter for Hawaii based CP cruises CP3, CP4 and CP7 on his old vessel, FV Ao Shibi Go.
Following the CP-10 experiment, CP-11 was designed to augment data collection for studies on tuna movements, exploitation rates and fish aggregation device (FAD) association dynamics. This study was made possible by the cooperation between SPC, Tri Marine purse seine company and International Seafood Sustainability Foundation (ISSF) and will be detailed in a later chapter in this report (see Acoustic Tagging).