Résumé
This document presents a characterization of the Reunion Island pelagic longline fishery, with a first description of the albacore catches, catch-at-size, and the standardized catch per unit of effort (CPUE) series for the period 1992-2013. The spatial catch and effort analysis revealed the major areas of operation of the fishery, and the identification of the fishery core region closer to the Reunion Island area. The trends in the albacore catch-at-size were analyzed annually, and compared between the seasons and regions of operation of the fishery. The albacore nominal CPUEs were calculated as number of fish per 1000 hooks, and were standardized using Generalized Linear Models (GLMs). Four different modeling approaches were used (including Tweedie, lognormal, Negative Binomial and Delta-method models) and compared in a sensitivity analysis. The models were compared with goodness-of-fit measures, and validated with residual analysis. The results presented in this paper, in particular the proposed albacore annual index of abundance, is a further contribution by the European Union to contribute for the assessment of the species in the Indian Ocean.