The Tunisian Republic covers a total area of 163 610 Km2, located in North Africa. The Mediterranean Sea is in the North and East parts of the country, while Tunisia borders with Algeria to the West, and the Libya to the South. Coastline is 1 298 km length and popolation in 2005 was estimated at about 10.1 million inhabitants.
The Tunisian marine coasts lie in the FAO-GFCM Geographical Sub Areas 12, 13 and 14.
An important fishing activity in Tunisia is the Dolphin fish, curried out from August to December, using fish aggregation devices (FAD) and surrounding nets. About 260 boats are involved in this fishery along the whole Tunisian coast. The main fishing areas and ports are located on the Central-Eastern coast, which concentrates around 70-75 percent of fishing effort and landings.
Aquaculture activity is mainly marine oriented, with an annual production of about 3 700 tonnes.
About 9 percent of the activity is focused on the tuna ongrowing.
Around 400 trawlers are located in the 10 Tunisian main ports, particularly in the South of the country. Normally they are equipped with about 400 Hp engines or more. About 350 vessels are employed in the small pelagic fishery, while the small scale vessels are more than 10 600, with a percentage of about 66 percent motorized.
Tunisian domestic fisheries product in 2006 was approximately 114 063 tonnes, 111 288 of which from capture fisheries and 2 775 from aquaculture.
Fishery imports, in the period 2003-2005, totalled an annual average of about 36 153 tonnes, while fish exports stood at 18 935 tonnes.
Fishery imports in 2006 totalled about 48 041 (1 000 USD) while exports was 156 540 (1 000 USD) with a net balance of 108 499 (1 000 USD). In 2003-2005, average per capita supply was 12.3 kg/year. (FAO, 2008).