According to data from MMAF and JICA (2009), yellowfin tuna catches has showed downward trend, in 2000, total catch of yellowfin tuna reached 163,241 tonnes, but since then it tend to decrease and dropped to 94,406 tonnes in 2006, though in 2007 it started to recover again with 103,655 tonnes catch. Indian Ocean (Indian Ocean, Western Timor Sea, Bali Strait and Sawu Sea) used to be the main catching areas for yellowfin tuna. Almost 54% of total yellowfin tuna in Indonesia was caught from this area. In the eastern part, Sulawesi Sea and Pacific Ocean was theimportant catching areas for yellowfin tuna, covering 33.7% of total yellowfin tuna landings, followed by Flores and Makassar Strait (18.2%) and Moluccas Sea, Tomini Bay, and Seram Sea (12.4%) Since tuna resources are abundant and scattered around Indonesian water, fishing grounds and landing areas of tuna in Indonesia are dispersed.
A significant volume of tuna is unloaded in Muara Baru (Jakarta) and Benoa (Bali); three other fishing ports that also carry tuna and skipjack are Bitung, Ambon, and Sorong. At regional level, Indonesia’s tuna fisheries fall into two RFMOs, namely Indian Ocean (western
part of Indonesia’s waters) and Western Central Pacific Ocean (eastern part of Indonesia’s
waters). FAO (undated) suggested that most of tuna in Western Central Pacific Ocean was caught within EEZs, but only 20% of tuna in Eastern Indian Ocean was caught within EEZ. FAO (2005) believes that there has been an unknown portion of the longline catch originates from locations outside of Indonesia.