Abstract
This document presents an up-to-date summary of the French purse seine fleet targeting tropical tunas in the Atlantic Ocean. The statistics cover the period 1991-2020 and specifically focus on the activity of the last year of the fishery. In 2020, 9 French purse seiners operated in the eastern Atlantic Ocean. The total capacity weighted by the months of activity for each vessel is 9 401 t. The total nominal effort was of 2052 fishing days and 1547 sets. The total catch of the French component of the EU purse seine fleet was 30 261 t, being composed of 51.8%, 40.2%, 6.5% of yellowfin, skipjack, and bigeye respectively and 1.5% of other species. The year 2020 was characterized by a general decrease for catches of 29%, carrying capacity of 5%, effort in fishing days of 29% and number of sets of 32%.