The twentieth session of the Working Party on Tropical Tunas of the Indian Ocean was held in Seychelles for 6 days from October 29 to November 3, 2018, attending 57 representatives from the Indian Ocean Tuna Commission (IOTC) and member and non- member countries by presenting reports and articles. Dr. Seyed Abbas Hosseini, the head of the Chabahar Offshore Fisheries Research Center, presented the article entitled "Reviewing the performance of tuna longline fishery of traditional ships in the Oman Sea" and Mr. Mokhtar Akhundi, the director general of fisheries as the representative of the Iran Fisheries Organization presented a paper at the meeting. It should be noted that the Indian Ocean Tuna Commission is an intergovernmental organization with its office in Seychelles under the supervision of the FAO organization and the management of the various species of tuna fish in the Indian Ocean is exclusively reserved for this organization. One of the important organizations involved in the management of tuna fishery in the Indian Ocean is the specialized working party whose meeting is held annually. The Working Party on Tropical Tunas (WPTT) is one of the seven IOTC working parties that is responsible for planning and policy making for three species of tuna including the yellowfin tuna, the skipjack tuna and the bigeye tuna.
The final conclusions of the Working Party are as follows:
1. Proposing some limitations for tuna fishery of the yellowfin tuna in the Indian Ocean for countries that have annual catches of more than 2000 tones each year (base year 2014)
2. Recommending and encouraging countries to collaborate on major projects of tuna in the Indian Ocean with the following titles: study of the genetic structure to determine the relationship between the different species of tropical tunas, study the ecological and biological data of tropical tunas, update fishery catch and effort data of the fishing fleets of the exploiting countries and determine the fishing management indicators for the three species of tropical tunas
3. Discussion was held on the sidelines of the meeting with representatives of the neighboring countries such as Pakistan in the implementation of joint projects including the tuna joint project and it was agreed that a memorandum of understanding should be made between the authorities