Tuna Fisheries Fuel Consumption Reduction and Safer Operations

This chapter demonstrates the potential of tuna fishing fleets to reduce their fuel oil consumption. In the “Oceanic tuna fisheries, immediate operational choices” pilot, the data monitoring system on vessels periodically upload data to the server for shore analysis. The data analytics employs fuel oil consumption equations and propulsion engine fault detection models. The fuel consumption equations are being used to develop immediate operational decision models. The fault detection models are used to plan maintenance operations and to prevent unexpected engine malfunctions. The data-driven planning software allows probabilistic forecasting of tuna biomass distribution and analysing changes in fishing strategies leading to fuel consumption reduction. These changes in fishing strategies can be summarized as a transition from hunting to harvesting. Vessels do not search for fish, but instread take less risks and fish, where it is more likely that the fish can be found and is easier to capture. Buoy data are increasingly used to improve stock assessments and have the potential to allow better monitoring and planning of fish quotas fulfilment.