STATUS OF THE WORLD FISHERIES FOR TUNA

BACKGROUND

The purpose of this series of documents is to provide information on the status of the stocks of tuna from the world’s oceans, to examine bycatch and mitigation issues, to review programs that regional fisheries management organizations (RFMOs) have undertaken to manage tunas and related species, and to examine how effective these programs are in conserving the stocks of target and non-target species.

This report was written and reviewed by the ISSF Science Advisory Committee.

Excluding bluefin tuna, which is not discussed in this report, there are 19 stocks of four of the five principal species of tuna that support commercial fisheries – yellowfin, bigeye, skipjack, and albacore.   

Five RFMOs are responsible for tuna conservation and management; their objective is to maintain the populations at levels of abundance that can support the maximum yield on a sustained basis (MSY), as qualified by relevant environmental and economic factors. 

Catches of the four principal market species have been hovering between 4 and 4.5 million tons annually during the last several years.  Of this, about 65 percent comes from the Pacific Ocean, 26 percent from the Indian Ocean, and the remaining 9 percent from the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea.  Skipjack makes up 60 percent of this catch, followed by yellowfin (24 per-cent), bigeye (10 percent), and albacore (5 percent).  Since 2000, world catches of skipjack have increased by about 26 percent, while yellowfin decreased by 22 percent, albacore by 12 percent, and bigeye by 6 percent. Purse seine nets take about 60 percent of the world production, longlines about 15 percent, pole-and-line about 12 percent, and a variety of other gears the remainder.


Section A1

This section presents a brief summary of the fisheries for the four main species of tunas – yellowfin, bigeye, skipjack, and albacore – exploited by those fisheries in each of the ocean areas covered by the four regional fisheries management organizations (RFMOs) responsible for the conservation and management of these species, and of the most important challenges facing these organizations. These issues, and others related to the status of the world’s tuna populations and their conservation, are discussed in greater detail in the other sections of this report.

Section A2

This section summarizes the status of the four main species of tunas – yellowfin, bigeye, skipjack, and albacore – in each of the ocean areas covered by the four regional fisheries management organizations (RFMOs) responsible for tuna fisheries, the conservation and management measures taken for each of these species, and the situation regarding bycatches and discards in the fisheries. This information is available in greater detail in Sections B, C, and D of this report.

Section B

This section describes the status of the stocks of the four main species of tunas – yellowfin, bigeye, skipjack, and albacore – in each of the ocean areas covered by the four regional fisheries management organizations (RFMOs) responsible for tuna fisheries, and presents a brief summary of the conservation and management measures taken for each of these species.

UPDATE 1 - EPO September 2009

UPDATE 2 - WCPO September 2009

             UPDATE 3 - WCPO December 2009

             UPDATE 4 - IO December 2009

UPDATE 5 - AO December 2009