The end of January saw the presence of multiple tuna carrier vessels in Majuro lagoon, a sure sign of an uptick in transshipment activity.
Last year was one of the slowest for tuna transshipments, with only 160 total transshipments compared to the 294 in 2023.
There appeared to be five carrier vessels in lagoon Friday February 7, with two purse seiners hooked up and offloading their catches to the larger vessels. Monday there were four carriers and a smaller number of purse seiners.
The presence of carrier vessels is what brings purse seiners into Majuro to conduct transshipment operations.