Comoros

The Comoros archipelago is physically made up of four volcanic islands (Grande Comore or Njazidja; Moheli or Mwali; Anjouan or Nzwani; Mayotte) totalling 1 861 km 2 with 427 km of coastline. Fishing in Comoros is exclusively artisanal, practised on open decked wooden or fibreglass boats, motorised or non-motorised with a length of 3 m to 9 m. It mainly exploits pelagic species (yellowfin tuna, skipjack tuna, albacore tuna, Indo-Pacific sailfish, bigeye tuna and mackerel tuna), as well as benthic species. The fishing techniques used are essentially the troll line and the longline. 5006 vessels operated in tuna fishing in 2018. They caught around 9, 181 t of tuna and tuna-like species. Total catches were dominated by skipjack tuna (43%), followed by yellowfin tuna (35%) and bigeye tuna (14%).